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By tallon - 6 Years Ago
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Hi,
I need my character to carry a prop I've created and place it on the ground. I'm attached the prop to his hands, and I'm using the 'Occupations>Courier' pack animations for the walking and placing, but don't know how to DETACH it when he puts it on the ground.
This is what I've done so far:
- I've created the prop and added it as a 'custom prop'
- using Composer mode I've attached it to his hands - and on the correct layer so it appears between his arms when he walks
- I now need to detach it when he places it on the ground (and walks away)
(I tried using another instance of the prop with visible/invisible settings but it seems there is no place on the character Z axis that is between his arms - only when you add the prop in composer mode)
Am I missing something simple or just doing this the wrong way?
Thanks,
D.
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By vepop - 6 Years Ago
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You have to make it invisible once it is on the ground and replace it with a separate prop.
I've raised this issue to Reallusion.
Hopefully they will do something about it.
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By justaviking - 6 Years Ago
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For this case, use "LINK" rather than Attach.
When you want him to let go of the walking stick, simply right-click on the stick at select "Un-link."
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By vepop - 6 Years Ago
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I don't think using LINK can place the prop in between the arms.
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By justaviking - 6 Years Ago
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When he said "attached it to to his HANDS," I didn't really notice the plural "hands" so I was picturing one hand.
If he is trying to connect both hands and do "inverse kinematics (IK)," maybe using dummy props, like on an old "sword fighting" tutorial, that's a bit different.
Maybe a screen shot of what is meant by "between the arms" would be helpful.
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By tallon - 6 Years Ago
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That's what I tried, but it's impossible to place the new item between the characters hands so it looks bad...
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By tallon - 6 Years Ago
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I've attached it (a letter 'X') to just one hand and the way it moves as the character walks is very good - see attached screen-grab
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By justaviking - 6 Years Ago
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D'oh!
So sorry... I used the "Latest" view for the forum, and forgot to notice this is a CrazyTalk thread, not iClone. :blush:
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By jlittle - 6 Years Ago
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When you add a prop to a character, in composer mode, you are adding it to the characters object.
This means that the prop is actually another part of the character like a hand, arm or a foot which allows you to layer the prop between other parts of the character.
The prop is also linked to some part of the character, just as all parts of the character are linked together.
This also means that the prop will always move with the character. You can't drop or leave it behind anymore than you could a hand, foot or arm.
On the stage, a character is seen as a single layer just as any other object and can be behind or in front of other objects.
This is why other objects can not appear between parts of the characters.
Using the internal layers of the character you can re-arrange the layering of the parts of a character with each other but not external objects.
Jeff
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By tallon - 6 Years Ago
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Thanks jlittle for that info - I think I understand it a little better now.
Do you know how I can achieve the effect I'm looking for? The 'carry' and 'place' motions are part of the Reallusion 'G3 Human Motions - Occupation Animations' pack, so I'm assuming that it must be possible to make this work...
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By jlittle - 6 Years Ago
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As vepop suggested, you need to make the character prop invisible at the drop and at the same frame make a stage prop visible.
Jeff
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By tallon - 6 Years Ago
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Yes, I understand that suggestion, but it would look crap because it's not possible to place the prop BETWEEN the characters hands, so it either has to go in front of the whole character or behind it. Either way looks it looks like a very poor piece of animation...
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By jlittle - 6 Years Ago
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Here is a quick test of a character prop dropped, turned invisible and then a stage prop turned visible to replace it.
The prop is not replaced until the characters hands are clear of the dropped prop so as to avoid the layering issue.
It's a pain to do because you have to reposition the prop every frame after the prop is "dropped" since as the character moves the prop moves with the character (attached to hand in this case).
You will see a slight wobble to the prop before the stage prop replaces it. I'm sure this can be reduce some with more adjustments to the props rotation.
Jeff
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By tallon - 6 Years Ago
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Hi Jeff - many thanks for that. I see what you mean about having to re-position each frame, and my example is worse because the prop size means it takes longer for the hands to be clear of it. I'll have to think about using it smaller.
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By vepop - 6 Years Ago
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Hi,
How about having a different camera viewpoint?
Once prop is placed, camera moves to something else (not showing the prop).
Or
Duplicate the character. Then delete the rest of the body parts except the arm and hand.
My 2-cent.
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By tallon - 6 Years Ago
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Thanks for those suggestions - the change of camera wont work for what I'm doing, but it's a very good idea I could use in future. Adding an extra arm/hand could be an alternative though.
Thanks!
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By jlittle - 6 Years Ago
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The double character, as vepop suggested, is probably your best bet. Duplicate the character and move its z axis back a couple clicks. Place the stage prop in between the two characters, change sprites to null except hand and arm on the back most character. Should be easier than what I showed.
Jeff
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