So I'm re-rigging Anna !
Using abAutoRig 3.3 and also doing facial rigs.

And so Ian helped me to go about the rigging in 3D2 on the annav2 - and that is made up of the meshes that I exported from anna.mb as objs. But alas, I realize that I should have used the original anna.mb, as I still want to keep the blendshapes. I should have simply detach the skin(s) from the original skeleton, and go from there, thereby retaining the blendshapes.

So what I do now is:
Import anna.mb into annav2, detach a...
Continue reading ...

This simple technique is useful for animation. In fact, I redid the smoothing part of Anna, by changing from subdiv proxy to mesh smooth. When animating a character it is good to have the choice of displaying either the high-res or low-res model.

Following [2] what I did was to create a smooth custom attribute on the Anna's master node, with min 0, max 3, and default 0. Then I did a Mesh->Smooth on Anna's character, dress and hair. Using connection editor, I connected the smooth attribute to ...
Continue reading ...

Character Set is very useful for animation.

I was looking at [1] and following it religiously to create anna character set (selecting master node).
However when referenced in the environment, Anna's various manipulators (pelvisManip, pelvisOverrideManip, handManip, clavicleManip) stop working after a key is set on the anna character set. Spent the whole afternoon stuck on this amidst time that is running out. After analyzing and trying various things, and on the verge of giving up, I looked at...
Continue reading ...

So I realize creating eyelashes and getting the eyelashes to move with the eye blinks require techniques.
Lest I forget, I'll record the steps that I painstaking gathered from various sources.

Creating eyelashes:

1. Create poly planes for each of top and bottom eyelashes.
2. Use eyelash file texture for color attribute, and invert the eyelash file texture (using Photoshop Image>Invert) for transparency attribute.
3. Set Color Balance>Color Offset to brown (brown eyelashes for Anna!), Color Balance>Alpha is...

Continue reading ...

Second time round doing reverse foot, I realize now that it wasn't completely working when I did it last semester.
I'd only the "step" working, while it caused all other attributes of the footManip to stop working as the step overrides the attributes set up via connection editor. After sleeping over it, the next morning, Eureka! I got it working. Why, yes, I should take the driver and driven both from the attributes in footManip for the "step".

Ok, so here, I just put down the settings I used f...
Continue reading ...