IK rigs for Animating and Posing in Blender

[sim333]

Dear animation masters!  At night I dream about stupid parenting of bones!))

Tell me pls this moment: how to connect the hands of two personage so that they do not diverge when their bodies move? And how to duplicate this bundle for all frames of the animation? Google doesn't help me in any way. I tried to adjust it manually on each frame - I get jerks in the animation.((

Please any help !!!

[MaryJane]

4 hours ago, sim333 said:

Dear animation masters!  At night I dream about stupid parenting of bones!))

Tell me pls this moment: how to connect the hands of two personage so that they do not diverge when their bodies move? And how to duplicate this bundle for all frames of the animation? Google doesn't help me in any way. I tried to adjust it manually on each frame - I get jerks in the animation.((

Please any help !!!

Try to use the 'child of' constraint. Make the hand of one rig the child of the other rig - under constraints tab! I covered this constraint a little in the text I wrote, the part about making the clavicle move with the hand. You can also do that with two separate rigs this way. You might need to fiddle around with the influence a bit. 

 

To duplicate, select the keyframes you want to duplicate in the dopesheet. You can shift+right click the ones you want to duplicate, or press b and draw a 'box' around the keyframes you want to duplicate to select multiple ones. Once selected, press shift+D and move them to the frame you want them on. 

[Clang3]

First things first:
Thanks for the ik rigs. These are incredibly helpful. Thank you!
It's been awhile since I've messed with sims 3 animation, though I have some familiarity...
My question is this:
What is the best way to import one rig into the other? 
I know to use the append function, but I am not sure exactly what I need to include for the new rig and what to leave out. 
Any help is appreciated.
Thanks again!

[MaryJane]

6 hours ago, Clang3 said:

First things first:
Thanks for the ik rigs. These are incredibly helpful. Thank you!
It's been awhile since I've messed with sims 3 animation, though I have some familiarity...
My question is this:
What is the best way to import one rig into the other? 
I know to use the append function, but I am not sure exactly what I need to include for the new rig and what to leave out. 
Any help is appreciated.
Thanks again!

 

You're welcome! I answered this question one page earlier:

 

 

On 3/23/2021 at 12:04 PM, MaryJane said:

For adding a second actor: in Blender, go to File -> append -> go to where you have the rigs stored on your pc -> click on the rig you want to add -> object -> select everything with 'am' or 'af' in it and click link/append from library. 

 

You can leave out some things (like the glasses) if you don't want them, but it doesn't hurt when you do append them - they can always be hidden.

 

I think I will put this on top of the text so people won't miss it. ?

[sim333]

10 hours ago, MaryJane said:

You're welcome!

Mega thanks! Tell me pls, how to import a bed or table into a blender? First, you need to export from the game, or somewhere there are ready-made objects, I can't find something.

[MaryJane]

2 hours ago, sim333 said:

Tell me pls, how to import a bed or table into a blender? 

No shade, but maybe I'm the google queen or something, because for me the solution comes up immediately after googling it: https://sims3cliptool.wordpress.com/tutorials/poseproptutoria/

 

So you need s3oc: http://www.simlogical.com/ContentUploadsRemote/uploads/190/index.htm

This version is a bit newer then what is used in the tutorial I linked. Once you have that you need to set up your game folders under settings --> Game folders. Navigate to the path were each expansion is installed. Or only do Base Game if you're just using a base game object. After that just follow the tutorial. 

 

Alternatively, you can also import a cc object as a prop. You don't have to clone that. 

[sim333]

1 hour ago, MaryJane said:

No shade, but maybe I'm the google queen or something, because for me the solution comes up immediately after googling

Clear! I thought somewhere there are deposits of ready-made objects for a blender. I'll go further to smoke bamboo))

 Thanks!!

[Clang3]

To summarize: Animation works perfect, but I can't get the animation to translate to EA bones. I am missing a step and I have reread everything, including the tut associated with The Master's rigs, and can't ID the missed step. EA bone layer dope sheet is also blank. 

Quick edit: In terms of the Baking Menu selections, I am following the directions you provided in your own tut... unchecking Only Selected. Checking Remove constraints. Start frame, end frame etc all correspond to my animations parameters (Frames 0-100)  

I am failing badly, and I understand that it is probably just my poor reading comprehension, or I've missed something critical.
Everything is working wonderfully, and I was able to import the second rig with no problem.
I can get my animations to look as I want them without difficulty.
When I go to Bake the animation, that appears to work correctly (I think, except the final product in blender appears exactly as it does in game T-pose, with only the hand bones effected) 
When I pull it into the game, I get the T-Pose with the only the hands bones effected by the animation.
My import process is correct, I am familiar with that standard procedure.
What I am not sure of is, where am I missing getting the EA bones to accept the animation? 
Is there specific skeleton or armature I need selected before I bake the animation?
The layer with the EA bones (the dope sheet) has no data in it, and I suspect I have goofed somehow, I also suspect it may be that I don't use Auto Keyframing because I prefer the greater control over the armature (owing to the way I'd done it with old normal rigs)
Sorry for all the Qs, I do love these rigs and I intend to get it right... 
Thanks again for your patience and help!
 

[sim333]

I also have a little problem. I wanted to see how your rig works from the inside. I click the Load Clip from your KW_MaryJane_Animations.package. And it turned out to be incompatible !!! It is compatible only with the Master's rig!))) With dear Lucas, everything is the same! I had a break in the template as they say in russia))) ...

[MaryJane]

6 hours ago, Clang3 said:

To summarize: Animation works perfect, but I can't get the animation to translate to EA bones. I am missing a step and I have reread everything, including the tut associated with The Master's rigs, and can't ID the missed step. EA bone layer dope sheet is also blank. 

Quick edit: In terms of the Baking Menu selections, I am following the directions you provided in your own tut... unchecking Only Selected. Checking Remove constraints. Start frame, end frame etc all correspond to my animations parameters (Frames 0-100)  

I am failing badly, and I understand that it is probably just my poor reading comprehension, or I've missed something critical.
Everything is working wonderfully, and I was able to import the second rig with no problem.
I can get my animations to look as I want them without difficulty.
When I go to Bake the animation, that appears to work correctly (I think, except the final product in blender appears exactly as it does in game T-pose, with only the hand bones effected) 
When I pull it into the game, I get the T-Pose with the only the hands bones effected by the animation.
My import process is correct, I am familiar with that standard procedure.
What I am not sure of is, where am I missing getting the EA bones to accept the animation? 
Is there specific skeleton or armature I need selected before I bake the animation?
The layer with the EA bones (the dope sheet) has no data in it, and I suspect I have goofed somehow, I also suspect it may be that I don't use Auto Keyframing because I prefer the greater control over the armature (owing to the way I'd done it with old normal rigs)
Sorry for all the Qs, I do love these rigs and I intend to get it right... 
Thanks again for your patience and help!
 

Unless you changed something in the rig, the original rig should copy the movement. It is correct there are no keyframes on that rig - you don't animate it so there are no keyframes. I suspect you only looked there to solve your problem, because you don't need that layer when animating at all.

|If you uncheck 'only selected' you don't have to have anything selected when baking. 

 

The T-pose at the end of baking should definitely not happen. I'm not sure what is going wrong, but the problem is something in the baking process - never encountered this and I made all my animations with these rigs. 

 

What is the frame step your baking in? Do you have 'pose' selected when baking? Did you accidentally also cleared the parenting? Which version of blender do you use? Did you put keyframes on the IK bones you animated? When using constraints, you don't have to keyframe the bone you put a constraint on, but if you don't put keyframes on the IK bones that move the rig and make the constraints move, there is no information to bake and nothing to translate to the original rig. 

 

Furthermore - I'm not sure if I can get enough information this way to help you out, so the only other way for me to see what is going wrong is if you send me your blender file. Also, not really important but I wanted to have said it: auto keyframing doesn't change how much control you have. It just reduces the time spend in blender - why set every keyframe manually when you don't have to? Also. it reduces the chance of a mistake by accidentally not keyframing a bone that is crucial for a movement. 

 

And no problem of course, although you might have me scaled higher on my patience level than I scale myself. I'm actually very impatient with these type of things. Thing is, there is zero guidance on sims 3 animation so if I don't help, who will? Especially now that Lucas left the building. 

[MaryJane]

4 hours ago, sim333 said:

I also have a little problem. I wanted to see how your rig works from the inside. I click the Load Clip from your KW_MaryJane_Animations.package. And it turned out to be incompatible !!! It is compatible only with the Master's rig!))) With dear Lucas, everything is the same! I had a break in the template as they say in russia))) ...

The clipfiles won't load on my rig because my rig is custom. The baking process translates it to the EA bones. A clipfile is baked. So my rig doesn't 'understand' that clip - it used different bones then my IK ones. This is why you should always save before the baking process - editing a baked animation is a pain in the ass. 

 

Also, you don't need my animations to understand how my rig works... from the inside? Lol. But if you really want to see something I made, I can send you one of my unbaked animations in a blender file. 

[Clang3]

4 minutes ago, MaryJane said:

"Unless you changed something in the rig, the original rig should copy the movement. It is correct there are no keyframes on that rig - you don't animate it so there are no keyframes. I suspect you only looked there to solve your problem, because you don't need that layer when animating at all."

It is true, I only looked there to solve the problem.

"|If you uncheck 'only selected' you don't have to have anything selected when baking."

I see. Did this for sure. 

 

"The T-pose at the end of baking should definitely not happen. I'm not sure what is going wrong, but the problem is something in the baking process - never encountered this and I made all my animations with these rigs."

That actually helps because at least now I know I have a problem before I move to export! Thank you. 

 

"What is the frame step your baking in? Do you have 'pose' selected when baking? Did you accidentally also cleared the parenting? Which version of blender do you use?"

frame step is 1.
I do have pose selected.
I don't think I cleared the parenting, but I will look and make sure.
Blender version is 2.7. I have noted you use 2.68, I can go grab that one too and give it a try. In fact, I'll definitely do this before I get back here again.

 

"Furthermore - I'm not sure if I can get enough information this way to help you out, so the only other way for me to see what is going wrong is if you send me your blender file. Also, not really important but I wanted to have said it: auto keyframing doesn't change how much control you have. It just reduces the time spend in blender - why set every keyframe manually when you don't have to?" 

 

I can send the file, but I want to try everything else before I do in order to reduce any work load on you. These rigs were a gift, and despite my many questions, I don't think any such thing should come with all the extra. (I absolutely appreciate the extra!) 

 

"And no problem of course, although you might have me scaled higher on my patience level than I scale myself. I'm actually very impatient with these type of things. Thing is, there is zero guidance on sims 3 animation so if I don't help, who will? Especially now that Lucas left the building. "

I can definitely relate. I've had my share of things like this in the past where I've been the only answer to a kind of problem.
Don't under-sell your patience, though, please. All the best things people do, they do when they are aware they aren't the best at doing them. A kind of courage (I know, cheesy. But, true.

Thank you again! This will give me a starting point and, assuming I continue to fail, I'll get back.
If I can get through the problem I'll get back too letting you know what I did.
Thanks!

 

[MaryJane]

28 minutes ago, Clang3 said:

 

I'm sorry, I did not see you already responded (you're quick!) so I edited my response to include some things I thought it also might be. I'll copy them here so you don't miss them:

 

- Did you put keyframes on the IK bones you animated? When using constraints, you don't have to keyframe the bone you put a constraint on, but if you don't put keyframes on the IK bones that move the rig and make the constraints move, there is no information to bake and nothing to translate to the original rig. 

 

- Also, not really important but I wanted to have said it: auto keyframing doesn't change how much control you have. It just reduces the time spend in blender - why set every keyframe manually when you don't have to? Also. it reduces the chance of a mistake by accidentally not keyframing a bone that is crucial for a movement.

 

 

 

 

[MaryJane]

28 minutes ago, Clang3 said:

 

Oh and, if I'm not mistaken sims 3 animations don't work well on higher versions of Blender. That's what I understood from it, but I'm not 100% sure! ( I use 2.67)

[MaryJane]

So, here are some of my animations in an unbaked blender format. It might be useful for some to see how I use my rigs. Please note that I'm not a master animator myself, but for beginners it might give some tips and/or insight to analyze my animations. 

 

Please take note that what I do movement wise is not only visible in the keyframes. I also use constraints and the F-curve editor (if you click on an individual bone and go to graph editor you can see the f-cruve of that bone, and you can make adjustments. But please only start doing that once you understand basic animations! It can be complicated.) I don't remember on which bones I edited the F-curve. There is only one I am sure of, and that is the neck control for the female in the third file. And usually I also do it on the breast bones (and probably on tons of other things!)

 

But go ahead and take a look if you feel like doing so: 

 

MaryJane_HottubAnimations.rar

 

 

Oh, and they might be quite the mess - I didn't realize there would come a time people would look into them! 

[Clang3]

I'll check these out. Having your animations before bake will definitely help. 

- Did you put keyframes on the IK bones you animated? When using constraints, you don't have to keyframe the bone you put a constraint on, but if you don't put keyframes on the IK bones that move the rig and make the constraints move, there is no information to bake and nothing to translate to the original rig. 

I did use keyframes on the IK bones. The only reason I don't use autokeying is because I have a tendency to occasionally start animating at the wrong key frame, usually waaay past where I meant to on the timeline.
By not using autokeying, it forces me to more often look at the timeline to ensure I didn't screw that up. I still do it sometimes lol I know it's easy to copy and paste the animations or keyframes over... but, seriously, it's embarrassing how often I've done this without that stupid simple step! 

It'll take some time for me to work through all the suggestions you've offered. I will definitely be back to let you know how that went. 
It does seem to be something purely on my end. Other people are using these, not to mention the fact you are using them yourself, all without problem.
I can already tell you this: It is either something so simple it's easy to miss, or simply some random thing not yet encountered (i.e. the wrong blender version maybe).
There is no large issue with the rigs I don't think.

Thanks again! downloaded your animations. Will return. 

[sim333]

9 hours ago, MaryJane said:

I can send you one of my unbaked animations in a blender file. 

Yes, very interesting! Thank you!

[Clang3]

Update: (RESOLVED) 
It was the Blender version. 2.7 was a no go.
2.67 worked perfectly.
Thank you for the help. I don't think I would have flipped versions had you not mentioned it. Not soon anyway.
Your animations look great, btw! 
Thanks again!  

[MaryJane]

1 hour ago, Clang3 said:

Update: (RESOLVED) 
It was the Blender version. 2.7 was a no go.
2.67 worked perfectly.
Thank you for the help. I don't think I would have flipped versions had you not mentioned it. Not soon anyway.
Your animations look great, btw! 
Thanks again!  

YES! Good that it's solved! Happy animating

[sim333]

I have another question, how to copy frames from other animations or from clips into my animation? What for? I found dance poses and I want to somehow combine it into one animation. But Load_Clip replaces the previous load with a new one.((   How to make it add?

[Clydie]

19 hours ago, sim333 said:

But Load_Clip replaces the previous load with a new one.((   How to make it add?

Try to load the clip, then you mark the bones and select the frames and say copy. Then you load the blender file of your project select the same bones and the frame where you would like to copy it in and say paste. Works for me, but trying to copy in such with IK bones it will not work I think. I use this way for bones without IK only.

If you use simple rigs without predefined IK bones like the ones from Master, the whole animation can be copied in this way. 

[sim333]

1 hour ago, Clydie said:

If you use simple rigs without predefined IK bones like the ones from Master, the whole animation can be copied in this way. 

Yes, Master, it’s incompatible with everyone else. Thanks for the recipe!!, I'll try when I find the time

[sim333]

Testing my ani. Hmm! It looked better in a blender! I will saw wood further))

[sim333]

I wonder why the legs move backward in the game. In one of Lucas' animation, this was also the case. Sims are ordinary, not spoiled by sliders.

I'll try to raise the sim , But she is already hanging

Spoiler

 

 

[MaryJane]

53 minutes ago, sim333 said:

I wonder why the legs move backward in the game. In one of Lucas' animation, this was also the case. Sims are ordinary, not spoiled by sliders.

I'll try to raise the sim , But she is already hanging

  Hide contents

 

 

 

That is very weird and should not happen (unless you use sliders, but you said you didn't)
It doesn't look like this in Blender?