viccho wrote: ↑Fri Jul 01, 2022 8:19 am
For me, it's quicker and less troublesome to create the Smart Bone manually
seems interesting, is there a tuto online that explain the way to do this ? or is it easy to explain here by text?
I thought about this after Daxel's comment, and I should clarify that it's probably just easier for me because I've done this so many times and know exactly what I need as I'm creating a smart bone. The menu command method really does the same thing but the defaults aren't what I typically use. If I was able to set my own defaults in the menu command I'd probably use it, so It really is more of a preference or personal habit thing.
Anyway, to create a smart bone dial manually, you need to first create the bone and name it. I usually create a 'panel' of dials, with the bones oriented in the direction I want (vertical for L/R control, horizontal for U/P). This is one of the reasons I prefer doing this manually because the command method creates only one bone at a time and it always points the bone upward.
Next I set the angle constraints. I generally prefer the default 70 degree setting from the Constraints panel because it takes less room in the workspace, but the command version defaults at 90 so I almost always need to change these. Also, setting the constraints is more visual with the panel: just click and drag the angle you want. (Use mid-MB drag if you're using 12.5 and earlier.) Since I like creating the entire panel at once, I can set the constraints on a selected group of bones so I don't need to do this individually.
When I create a Smart Bone, the time slider is already at frame one, so if I click the bone, a rotation key with the same angle is set. Then I change the new key to Linear. After that, I decide the duration and rotate my dial at the end frame. With the command version, since the last keyframe is already set, I have to select zero and copy it to frame 1...otherwise, the key at frame one will be have an interpolated value.
When the bone has a name and you create an action, the smart bone action is automatically created with that name. When you create the reverse angle action, it does the same but with the number appended. When you use the command version, you still need to name it in the dialog...the advantage here is that if you already know you need a bi-directional control, the command version does both directions at once.
One thing the command does that's nice is that it sets the bone strength to zero when you create it. But since I like to create the entire panel of bones from the start, I can set the bone strength for all the bones at one time. (I just have be careful I don't have other bones unintentionally selected.)
So...after writing this, I can see it's really not more or less work to create Smart Bones manually vs automatically, it's just a different workflow. There are advantages and disadvantages with each but, for me, I still prefer creating the Smart Bones myself.
But here's something I used to do that made setting up Smart Bones go a bit faster...
Tip #1: I mentioned that I liked making the whole panel of bones before turning them into dials. As a matter of fact, I used to have a
pre-made panel of already named bones that I would re-use when rigging new character. These bones were all parented to a single 'mover' bone. When rigging, I simply attached this to character's root bone and I was ready to go.
It's a timesaver that I should start using again. I think I stopped only because I was working on
Fast & Furious: Spy Racers for a few years and didn't use Moho as routinely there as I did on our other shows.
Tip #2: Parent a 'leveler' bone with Independent Angle enabled to the character's root bone and then parent the 'mover' bone to this one. This keeps the SBD panel leveled even when you rotate the character.)
Once set up, enable Shy for the 'leveler' bone...you don't want to animate this or need to see it even.
Tipi #3: When drawing your bone 'panel', press Ctrl-G. This enables the grid and it helps you create your panel with consistant bone sizes and perfect alignment. When you're done drawing the bones, press Ctrl-G again to disable and hide the grid.
