TRAVIS UI V1.0

 

GENERAL INFORMATION

This Rig was created August/September 2005 by M.S.R Kiessling.

The Model was provided by Leftfield Productions.

The model contains no textures.

 

UI IN DEPTH

This section explains the features of the UI.

1) Menu Bar
The menu bar contains two option menus.
File contains the command to close the UI and to re-initizialize the user Interface.
? contains the link to this help and my homepage.
2) Tabs
The tabs let you switch between the PICKER(2a) and the POSE MAKER(2b).
2a) Picker
The Picker is a quick way to select any of the controls. The short names should be self-explanatory.
It also includes a shortcut to show or hide all the controls.
If you feel comfortable using the picker, this is a great way to animate without clustering the viewport with all the control objects.
2b) Pose Maker
This window contains a viewport of the full body, buttons to select the character sets and buttons to create clips and poses.
The buttons below the viewport allow to reset the face cam and create clips and poses.When creating a pose, the UI automatically creates the clip or poses for the appropriate character set and stores it in the defined directory's "Clips and Poses" folder".
3) FK IK Controls
This control contains sliders for switching between IK and FK on the arms and for manipulating the shoulders. These are the same controls found on the FK/IK control object.
4) FK IK Match Buttons
The six buttons below the FK/IK attribute sliders let you match the FK to the IK arm skeleton (and likewise) of the respective arm as well as reset the FK control to default.
5) Targets
This tab contains the same controls as the TARGET_CTRL object. To use, position, e.g. the wrist at the handle bar and turn on "Constrain To : Handlebar" to keep the wrist in relative position to the handle from that point on. The constrained objects may still be animated and will always keep the relative distance to whatever part of the bike they are constrained to. This is a helpful feature for keeping the wrists on the handle or seat, or to keep the feet locked on the pedals. Play around, you figure it out.
6) Extras
This control contains the same attributes as the EXTRA_CTRL object.
The first two attributes rotate the wheels. The lower attributes allow to rotate the chain and rotate each pedal individually. The FLAT attribute insures that the pedals remain flat to the ground plus the rotation defined in the individual pedal controls. This is helpful when animating a pedaling motion, since it is not neccesary to counter-animate each pedal. Play around, you figure it out.
7) Modules
These four buttons provide an easy way to open the graph editor, the trax editor, the visor and the dope sheet.

CONTROLS

This section includes a brief description of the controls.

MOVE ALL
Used to position the character.
UI CONTROL
Used to open the User Interface.
FOOT CONTROLS
These controls drive the movement of the feet. Also included are some attributes for foot roll, heel roll etc.
The KNEE CONTROL is parented to the foot control by default, but can also be animated manually.
FULL BODY CONTROL
This control drives the root. All upper back controls will be transformed with the movement of this control object.
PELVIS CONTROL
Use this control to animate the lower back without inflkuencing the upper contols.
BACK CONTROL
Use to animate the back. The Y-Axis is not included, since the twist of the back is driven by the
SHOULDER CONTROL
Used to animate the chest area and drive the twist of the upper body.
NECK CONTROL
Used to animate the neck area
ARM CONTROLS
These include the FK IK CONTROL and the control objects for the arm joints. The FK IK CONTROL is used to switch between
the IK and the FK control skletons as well as to animate the clavicles.
The FK includes controls for the shoulder, elbow and wrist of each arm, the IK includes controls for the elbow and wrist of each arm.
Additionally, the Hand controls allow for the bending of the hands.
TARGETS CONTROL
This tab contains the same controls as the TARGET_CTRL object. To use, position, e.g. the wrist at the handle bar and turn on "Constrain To : Handlebar" to keep the wrist in relative position to the handle from that point on. The constrained objects may still be animated and will always keep the relative distance to whatever part of the bike they are constrained to. This is a helpful feature for keeping the wrists on the handle or seat, or to keep the feet locked on the pedals. Play around, you figure it out.
EXTRAS CONTROL
This control contains the same attributes as the EXTRA_CTRL object.
The first two attributes rotate the wheels. The lower attributes allow to rotate the chain and rotate each pedal individually. The FLAT attribute insures that the pedals remain flat to the ground plus the rotation defined in the individual pedal controls. This is helpful when animating a pedaling motion, since it is not neccesary to counter-animate each pedal. Play around, you figure it out.
BIKE CENTER PIVOT CONTROL
Used to rotate the complete rig around a pivot near the center of the bike. This can be used to e.g flatten the bike in mid-air.Does not work well when combined with animating BACK/FRONT WHEELIE CONTROL.
FRONT AXIS
This control turns the handle bar.
BACK/FRONT WHEELIE CONTROLS
Used to drive a wheelie on either the front or back axis.Does not work well when combined with animating the BIKE CENTER PIVOT CONTROL.
ROTATE AROUND FRONT/BACK CONTROLS
Used to rotate the bike around the front or back wheel. Can be combined with the wheelie controls.

ATTENTION

This sections includes some bullet points to be aware off in order to avoid any problems.

* Be careful when animating the Move_All_CTRL.

* NEVER animate anything else than the control objects and the attributes included therein.

*NEVER use the break connections command when getting rid of keyframes on any of the control objects. Use delete selected instead, or delete keys from the timeline. Using break connections will greatly interfere with character sets and set driven attributes.

* NEVER rename anything in the scene. The rig won't work if you do.

* The first time you use the Rig, you should select the whole character set ( SELECT ALL in the Pose Maker Window) and create a pose so you can always revert back to the default stance.

* Although some attributes are limited, many are not. Some flipping can occur. To prevent this, either lock
the flipping joints manually or use a less extreme pose. The rig should work fine for most situations. The decision not to limit every single attribute was made because it is easier to lock and limit certain things manually depending on the need than to manually navigate through the channel box and unlock/unlimit them.

* To get a more visual reference for all the poses, render a frame of the pose with a resolution of 64 x 64, from the render view select View>Grab swatch to Hypershade , and , with the visor open, MMB drag the swatch onto the newly created pose/clip. I would have included that, but then I thought...Yeah, whatever.

* This Rig was created using a resolution of 1600 x 1200. If your resolution doesn't show the UI completely, use the collapse buttons on top of each frame to shrink the UI.
The UI is merely intended to ease some of the aspects of animating, but it is not required to use the UI.
Almost everything can be done using only the control objects.
Only exceptions are the FK to IK/IK to FK match buttons, the create Pose/Clip buttons (although those are accessible under Animate>Create Clip/Pose ).

* As mentioned above, the character is intended as a game character, therefore it doesn't contain any blendshapes or other fixes (like influence objects) to improve the look of certain problem areas (shoulders, hips, ..)

* I'm more a modeler than a programmer, so I'm sure there are a lot of lines of code that are totally unnecessary and too much and whatever, but it works.

* Don't ever try to pass this rig on as your own (I'll find you).

CONTACT

Please feel free to contact me with any suggestions, critiques, questions, problems or jobs at

MIKE@MK3D.COM

MK3D.COM

THANKS TO...

Jeff Bernstein for getting me hooked on MEL
Tom Meade for an awesome rigging class
Folgers for great coffee
Jen for continous motivational talk
And big thanks to whoever invented Poppy Seeds bagels

Very VERY special thanks to me, without whom
this all wouldn't be possible.


(c) 2005 M.S.R. Kiessling www.mk3d.com

General Info

UI in Depth

Controls

Attention

Contact

Thanks to

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