Bones not staying connected

[langsor]

Hi everyone, this is day 2 with ASP 6 and I've hit a (small) wall. After following the tutorial I find my results with the bone movements are not the same as shown with the tutorial character (Frank).

The problem:
After drawing bones and then trying to manipulate limbs, the bones pivot in place and the bones separate at the joint. The bones rotate around causing distortion but do not move on the XY plane at all.

When I use the pre-fabricated character from the tutorial (bones already drawn) the limbs move in the XY plane and the bones stay connected. I cannot find the difference in settings of technique between my bones and the pre-fab character's bones.

This must be a beginner's problem but I cannot find anything either on the tutorial, help file, forum, or general Google search -- any feedback of what I'm doing wrong would be appreciated.

Thank you,
Kevin

[sbtamu]

Have you read about binding points yet? I think its around page 200 in the users manual in the help section on your tabs. Also make sure to parent the bones in the order shown in the tutorials.

[langsor]

sbtamu, Thank you for your reply. I have only looked at the tutorial for binding points but it seems that this is a different issue (?), if I am wrong I will work through that tutorial sooner than later.

I have worked through the basic tutorial several times around the bones part and have carefully drawn my bones in parent order with the previous bone still selected. Is there another trick to parenting that I'm missing?

I've attached a comparison of the tutorial Frank with the bones already drawn, and the one where I drew the bones. The action is the same for both, simply lifting the ankle at the bone, but clearly the results are very different.

Thanks again



Close up of action, seems like bones are parented correctly by coloring.

[sbtamu]

It looks like a binding problem to me.
When u bind points, select the bone, then click on select points then hold the shift key down while you click on all the points that u think need to go to that bone, when they are all red hit the space bar.

[madrobot]

Use the bone parenting tool. When you click on it you should get a tree of arrows from bone to bone showing the parenting. If it runs down the model, great. If not, reparent the bones and you should be right.

[langsor]

sbtamu and madrobot, thank you both for your replies.

I tried the re-parenting and the bone-point binding approaches you suggested, as well as starting over from scratch and playing with a simpler armature model. What I found to be the problem was actually something completely different.

For some reason (TM) I was drawing my bones from the "bottom-up" although I was drawing them in the correct order from head to toes. I found it works as intended when drawing them and not lifting my cursor (so as a continuation from the previously drawn bone), the skeleton is now working and Frank the character can now dance the cancan!

I see I still have some learning ahead of me, this is not Flash, which I'm used to, but has great tools for the actual animating I intend to do.

Thank you both again.

[madrobot]

Good on you mate, well done. Keep at it.

[sbtamu]

sbtamu and madrobot, thank you both for your replies.

I tried the re-parenting and the bone-point binding approaches you suggested, as well as starting over from scratch and playing with a simpler armature model. What I found to be the problem was actually something completely different.

For some reason (TM) I was drawing my bones from the "bottom-up" although I was drawing them in the correct order from head to toes. I found it works as intended when drawing them and not lifting my cursor (so as a continuation from the previously drawn bone), the skeleton is now working and Frank the character can now dance the cancan!

I see I still have some learning ahead of me, this is not Flash, which I'm used to, but has great tools for the actual animating I intend to do.

Thank you both again.

Now that u mentioned it, I see the bones 180 degrees off in your images now, I didn't even notice that.

CGS and animations away, salute.

[Víctor Paredes]

Now that u mentioned it, I see the bones 180 degrees off in your images now, I didn't even notice that.

I noticed just when I saw it, but the problem was already solved. Of course you have right to don't believe me

[langsor]

Yeah, I carefully compared mine against the prefab version, but not side-by-side. Even so, my brain saw what it wanted to see, not what was there. I appreciate the help and that you responded so quickly to my plight.

This is a fun program and a great forum but there is a lot to learn about the subtlety of animating in a lifelike manner. Maybe someday I'll know enough to be able to help other people :-)

[langsor]

selgin, with 2099 posts, I believe you! :D

[sbtamu]

Now that u mentioned it, I see the bones 180 degrees off in your images now, I didn't even notice that.

I noticed just when I saw it, but the problem was already solved. Of course you have right to don't believe me

And now the amazing selgin will predict the next earthquake in Chili

"grins ear to ear"

[jahnocli]

And now the amazing selgin will predict the next earthquake in Chili.

That's in really poor taste. And you can't spell 'Chile'. And Chile starts with a capital letter. And you're a teacher..?

[slowtiger]

Actually he's referring to "Das Erdbeben in Chili" (http://gutenberg.spiegel.de/?id=5&xid=1 ... 1#gb_found) by Heinrich von Kleist, written in 1807 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Earthquake_in_Chile).

[jahnocli]

You never disappoint with the pedantic putdown, slowtiger!