Converting, Organizing, and Aligning

Converting, Organizing, and Aligning

3. Maximize a Schematic view (by pressing the numeric keypad’s0 key, which toggles the “maximized view” mode on and off,just as in Modeler) and organize your character into an iconicrepresentation of a human. As in Figure 5.6, I lean toward aclassic da Vinci layout, giving the rough impression of thecharacter standing spread eagle, palms up.90Chapter 5: Converting, Organizing, and AligningFigure 5.6. Animation can be pretty hectic. Every bit of organization you can dobeforehand helps. With the controls for your character laid out like this, you canquickly choose the control you need without having to scroll through a list. (Thisillustration is only a suggestion; it is what works best for me. Feel free to innovateand find what works best for you!) 5.3 Aligning the Spine, Pelvis, and FeetBecause the skelegon “bank rotation handle” is a little cryptic tounderstand, sometimes you’ll find that you’ll need to adjust the rota-tion axes of the bones as Layout has created them from Modeler’sskelegons.1. Select the Root bone.Depending on the viewport in which skelegons were created,bones created from these skelegons can have a +/–90º bank rota-tion to them (even if the bank rotation handle was never touched).This flip-flops what we would think of as heading and bank for thebone, its children, or both! This isn’t a huge problem, and we couldeasily work around it. But when we’re deeply engrossed in a scene,and the familiar left-right mouse movement that usually means “I’mrotating in heading” instead rotates these few bones in pitch, it canfeel like an unnecessary speed bump in the roadway of production.So, here’s how we’re going to fix it.91Chapter 5: Converting, Organizing, and AligningFigure 5.7. Pitch is what we would normally think of in LightWave as the axis torotate an item forward and backward (around its X-axis). With the way Root iscurrently oriented, in order to bend the character forward and backward we wouldhave to use heading (represented by the red circle on your screen). 2. Select your character’smesh (object).3. Choose Items|Add|Clone ^C and enter 1for the number of clones.(See Figure 5.8.)4. In a Schematic window,move this new object toa place where it won’tinterfere visually withthe original model andits hierarchy.92Chapter 5: Converting, Organizing, and AligningNote:I’ve found the Clone command towork more reliably than the CloneHierarchy command.Note:Under Display Options|SchematicView, you'll find a check boxlabeled “Drag Descendants.” Whenthis box is unchecked, each “node”within a Schematic view can bemoved independently of all the oth-ers. When this is checked, movingsomething in a Schematic view alsomoves all of its children — this iswhat you’ll want for Step 4.Figure 5.8. Your model will be cloned, along with all its bone structure. 5. With the clone of your model still selected, open the ClassicScene Editor and choose Select|Select All Bones of Cur-rent Object.6. With all the bones of the cloned model selected, within theScene Editor select Colors|Color Selected Items|Orange.93Chapter 5: Converting, Organizing, and AligningFigure 5.9. All the bones of the cloned model will beselected.Note:The bones you just colored orange will be guides for us tomatch as we rotate our model back into alignment. If younotice in the Current Item field that you’ve got an orangebone selected, stop! LightWave only has one level of undoin Layout. Make sure you have the right bone selectedbefore making changes. 7. Select the Root bone of your original mesh. (It should be cyan,not orange.)94Chapter 5: Converting, Organizing, and AligningFigure 5.10. All the bones you have selected will be colored orange.Figure 5.11. Just making sure that the correct bone is selected. 8. Change your tool (what LightWave does when you move themouse) to Rotate (Modify|Rotate|Rotate y).9. In the numeric input field, change the entry for bank to 0.10. Select the Pelvis bone of your original mesh.11. Make sure you are at Frame 0.12. Enter 0, 0, 0 for its rotation (heading, pitch, and bank), andthen manually rotate it until it lines up with the orange pelvisbone of the cloned mesh.95Chapter 5: Converting, Organizing, and AligningFigure 5.12. The value for bank in my scene was –90. Changing the pivot’sbank to 0 swings my character’s spine and pelvis onto its side.Newbie Note:After getting each of these bones lined up, press Entertwice to create a keyframe for that bone. Even if you haveAuto Key Create active, this is a good habit to get into; itreduces the chances of losing precious minutes or hoursof work. 13. Repeat step 12 for Spine1, Spine2, and Spine3.96Chapter 5: Converting, Organizing, and AligningFigure 5.13. After you change the rotation values for the pelvis to 0, youshould only need to rotate it along its pitch axis to line it up with theorange reference bone. Almost always, copying the old value for headinginto pitch aligns the pelvis and spine bones perfectly.Figure 5.14. The spine bones, back in alignment with our orangereference bones. 14. Select RightFoot in your original mesh.15. Set its bank rotation to 0.16. Select RightToes (in your original mesh).97Chapter 5: Converting, Organizing, and AligningFigure 5.15. Changing RightFoot’s bank should leave it aligned with itsorange reference bone (even though RightToes is now misaligned). TweakRightFoot’s heading and bank if you need to. 17. Swap the values for heading and pitch, and zero-out the valuefor bank; RightToes should line up with its orange referencebone. Tweak as needed.18. Repeat steps 14 to 17 for LeftFoot and LeftToes.19. Check to see that the Head,*Hand_Trans, and *Hand_Rotbones also have a bank rotation of 0. Adjust them as needed.20. Save a revision of your scene.21. Select the cloned object you’ve been using as reference andpress - (or click Items|Delete|Clear Selected) to clear itfrom the scene.22. Save another revision of your scene.98Chapter 5: Converting, Organizing, and AligningFigure 5.16. RightToes is back on track. (Nothing is parented to the toes, sothey don’t have to be exact.) 5.4 Bone HierarchyWe did a lot of hierarchy work in Modeler with skelegons, but thereare some hierarchical things that can’t be done with skelegons.Modeler forces child skelegons to be attached to the tip of their par-ent skelegon. Child bones in Layout don’t have to be right at theirparent’s tip. We’ll need this kind of relationship for our character’sfingers as they attach to the hand.99Chapter 5: Converting, Organizing, and AligningFigure 5.17. Your character is done with its virtual chiropractic session; besure to clear the right object!Newbie Note:With Parent in Place active, LightWave calculates the SRToffset required to keep the selected object in the same“worldspace” (an item’s relationship to the LW world vs. itsrelationship to another item; more on this in Chapter 8), eventhough it inherits SRT data from its parent item. LightWavedoes a good job of this, but it can be fooled by complex hier-archies where items have had changes made to their pivot’srotation (see Section 5.5). So save revisions and always bewatchful for errors in these calculations! [...]... the Up Arrow. 4. Make RightIndex_Base, RightMiddle_Base, and RightPinky_Base children of RightHand_Rot. 5. Make RightHand_Rot a child of RightHand_Trans. 6. Repeat steps 2 to 5 for the bones of the left hand. 7. Make RightHand_Trans and LeftHand_Trans children of Root. 8. Make RightShoulder and LeftShoulder children of Spine3. 9. Make RightKnee and LeftKnee children of Pelvis. 10. Make Pelvis a child... LeftFoot and LeftToes. 19. Check to see that the Head,*Hand_Trans, and *Hand_Rot bones also have a bank rotation of 0. Adjust them as needed. 20. Save a revision of your scene. 21. Select the cloned object you’ve been using as reference and press - (or click Items|Delete|Clear Selected) to clear it from the scene. 22. Save another revision of your scene. 98 Chapter 5: Converting, Organizing, and Aligning Figure... orange.) 94 Chapter 5: Converting, Organizing, and Aligning Figure 5.10. All the bones you have selected will be colored orange. Figure 5.11. Just making sure that the correct bone is selected. 3. Make sure you are on Frame 0. 4. Select the bone named Root. 5. Choose Setup|Modify|Orientation|Record Piv Rot to record the Root’s pivot rotation. 103 Chapter 5: Converting, Organizing, and Aligning Newbie Note: Remember... a human. As in Figure 5.6, I lean toward a classic da Vinci layout, giving the rough impression of the character standing spread eagle, palms up. 90 Chapter 5: Converting, Organizing, and Aligning Figure 5.6. Animation can be pretty hectic. Every bit of organization you can do beforehand helps. With the controls for your character laid out like this, you can quickly choose the control you need without... things, and that Parent in Place only works when both items’ pivots are free of rotation. So save revisions of your scene before making changes in your character’s hierarchy. Figure 5.20. The schematic of the character’s hierarchy up to this point. 6. Select Pelvis and record its pivot rotation. 7. Repeat this to record pivot rotation for all bones. 104 Chapter 5: Converting, Organizing, and Aligning Figure... (walking). As you begin work on a scene, think about what kind of hierarchy of head, hands, and feet will make your work easier, and experiment. You’ll find your own personal 7. Repeat step 6 for Root, RightKnee, LeftKnee, RightFoot, LeftFoot, RightHand_Trans, LeftHand_Trans, Right- Elbow, RightShoulder, LeftElbow, LeftShoulder, and Head. Now, we need to tell IK Booster that we want certain bones to default... best for me. Feel free to innovate and find what works best for you!) 3. Save a revision of your scene! Give yourself a healthy pat on the back! You’ve just completed the first half of character setup! In the next chapter, you’ll finally begin to see the power of the setup you’ve been creating as we start to activate IK. 106 Chapter 5: Converting, Organizing, and Aligning Figure 5.23. Record rest position. ... use standard IK and/ or IK Booster, whichever you find you prefer. You’ll find in Chapter 8, “Using the Controls,” that standard IK is better for some things, just as IK Booster is better for others. The important thing is that you have a choice. Find out which tools work best in which ways for your manner of problem solving, and then use the proper tool for the job. 132 Chapter 6: Putting IK and IKB... scene.) 9. Repeat step 8 for LeftFoot, RightHand_Trans, LeftHand_Trans, and Head. Next, for an extra, added measure of protection against gimbal lock while animating, I like to set quaternion rotation for the biceps and thighs. (As mentioned in Chapter 2, this isn’t a “magic bullet”; all it does is add an extra layer of protection.) 10. Select the RightThigh and right-click on its control icon. In the... of Spine3. 9. Make RightKnee and LeftKnee children of Pelvis. 10. Make Pelvis a child of Spine1 (Spine1 being a child of Root). 11. Make Head a child of Spine1. 101 Chapter 5: Converting, Organizing, and Aligning Note: RightFoot and LeftFoot remain children of ch_04. Note: These are options you’ll want to keep in the back of your mind for future reference. I’ll go through them in Chapter 8 in the section . model andits hierarchy.92Chapter 5: Converting, Organizing, and AligningNote:I’ve found the Clone command towork more reliably than the CloneHierarchy command.Note:Under. pitch, and bank), andthen manually rotate it until it lines up with the orange pelvisbone of the cloned mesh.95Chapter 5: Converting, Organizing, and AligningFigure