Anim8or Community

 Nice one ENSONIQ5 

 An interesting thing is the way a 'thumb' is actually set up in real life:

 Notice the thumbs in regard to positition and skin cover.

 This is froyds hand:

Theres only 2 bones in the actual thumb. The 3rd bone is in the side heel of the hand, and that one moves, unlike the rest of those hand bones, which are static.

 So this thumb setup, which seems the most common way of setting up a hand rig,
,
 is fundamentally incorrect... ...

Giving finger/thumb bones some limits is pretty essential. I've changed the limits, check them out.
 Was in a bit of a rush this morning, been a while since skinning a hand, but it's come back to me now. (this method not really just for fingers. Try it everywhere.
This is 1 finger.

 Start from the tip of the finger, with a weight brush strength of 1.0. Paint the seams points as
shown in the pic along the top. (both ends of seam). It won't look exactly like this, but it will later. So that's 4 seams purple, (tip of finger), 3 seams green and 3 seams yellow, as shown by the colored numbers.
the finger should look like this pic below after you've painted the '1's'

 Next, set weight strength to 0.5.
 Start at the yellow bone, (painting yellow), and paint the middle seam between yellow and green,
but only paint over the vertices ONCE. This is important, because once-over will give a strength
of 0.5. If you paint it again, the strength will increase.
 Then do the same with green to purple. (middle to tip of finger) Paint the middle seams vertices green, and ONCE only.
 I included the purple 0.5 at the base of the finger. Although that purple part of the hand isn't animated the yellow part of the finger is, so the theory/method remains the same.

EDIT: To avoid confusion.
 Once you've done the '0.5's it'll look like the top pic. (although i haven't painted the '0.5' on the 'purple to yellow' base of the finger.

 Hi there exile,
 Good advice from davdud and Ensoniq5
 Although it may all seem a bit confusing at first, you keep at it and things will come together.
 (when weight painting, remember its the vertices that 'take' the weight, not the faces)
 
 I would suggest using a reference image to model a hand, and make sure the fingers have a reasonable gap between them. The an8 hand tutorial uses 'box modelling', which is great.
 Check some other 'box modelling a hand' tutorials online as well.
 Heres one, and although it was written in blender, its just as do-able in anim8or.
 Box modelling a hand:
http://blog.teamthinklabs.com/index.php/2012/04/03/box-modeling-for-total-n00bs/
 
 The only thing i would change here is the amount of seams at the finger joints. As you reach a finger joint, give 2 extra 'short' extrusions before the next 'main' finger extrusion. This will give you 3 seams at each joint, rather than just 1.
 The only real way to animate hands successfully is by using bones. 3 bones for each finger an 3 for the thumb. (although the first thumb bone is lodged 'in' the side of the hand)
 Once you've got a hand model you're happy with, and a skeleton to fit it, then try skinning again. Take note of what Ensoniq5 said...

"One method is to start with influences, setting the influence ranges as accurately as possible, then switch to weight painting to make adjustments"

.
 As you make progress with the skinning in figure mode, switch over to sequence mode and test each finger, then back to tweak in figure mode, then back to test in sequence mode... and so on, till you get the fingers animating well.
 The BONUS payoff you get when you're happy with the results is:
 .

....a small library of hands that work well could be used with different characters.

You can do this by making sequences. Single frame 'pose' sequences and also multi frame actual sequences. (the rig must be the same rig, but a different character can be attached, as a new/seperate figure.)
 nb: With 2 or more 'pose' sequences, added in scene mode, anim8or will make larger proper sequences by filling in the gaps.ie: frame 10 -> flat hand pose sequence, frame 15 -> closed hand pose sequence. When you play the animation, anim8or fills in frames between 10 and 15, and the open hand will close.
 So rather than making a sequence of a hand closing, you can leave that movement up to anim8or.
 Naturally, the same applies to any single pose sequences.
 (actually, 'pose sequence' is not the best description. Its really just a pose, made in sequence mode.)

 
Questions welcome.

Hi steve.
  Having menu folders related to a figure is a great space-saver/organiser in the timetrack.
 Can they please also show in the sequence editor, and would there be any chance that menu folders could also be availabe for morph targets?
 Thanks.

Sorry steve. (and nemyax)  Looks like i may have posted too soon.
 I see now the problem i was having was a mixture of a couple of things.
 I had froyd scaled down to about a tenth of normal froyd size, without realising it, and between that and a rather awkward camera (2) position, i just wasn't getting a good connection/view of the 'smaller' IK 'orange ball thing'. (ie: would get irrational/difficult movement in his arm.)
 I think a fault of my own, rather than an anin8or problem. Sorry about the 'dud bug' report.

 If you scale down a figure to 'very small', (in scene mode), and try IK from 'an odd-ish angle', you'll probably see more what i'm talking about.
 But anyway, False report i think, sorry about that. My bad.

 Royal gala/gala apples: not a particularly great season for apples this year, but mostly grown for export, so more likely to be a shortage here before you guys notice anything. And so far, at this time of year, it's still 'apples' apples everywhere'.
You should be ok for some time yet.

 
 Hi steve. Have just discovered that Animating a figure with IK is unresponsive in extra camera views. (camera 2, Camera 3 etc...) (not sure if you already know that)
 
 Sorry i've been a bit tied up lately, but winter is arriving now, here in nz, so looking forward to spending some cozy nights at home with anim8or.
 ... i'll keep reporting in more often from now on....
...and froyd's itching to get mobile again



   

 Hi Steve.
 Attached is a simple example, tested on both Windows 7 and windows XP.
 Hopefully you'll have the same results as described in the note within.
  Thanks.

 EDIT: Have just discovered, that just double clicking the file 'seq1ExpNoFig.an8' will open anim8or, followed immediately by crash.
 'seq1Exported.an8' opens properly when double clicked.
 The difference between the 2 files is:
 'seq1Exported.an8' is a sequenced exported with a figure, (working),
and 'seq1ExpNoFig.an8' is the same sequence, exported with NO figure. (not working)

The way i've always seen it, the textures folder is for keeping 'textures', ie: cloth, wood, metal, brick, marble, water, colors, bump maps etc.
 Images folder for 'images', ie, backgrounds, reference images, renders.
 I'm assuming you're not really finding a practical  use for the 'image' folder, which i understand. There's not a lot in my image folder either, a few background images, as i keep Ref pics and renders in the relative project file.
 good question.