Widgets orientation

[Andy Kynerd]

I’m getting hung up on something that’s happening with my widgets, at 18:25 in the Basic FK Chain video, where Wayne creates new circle widgets. His widgets are all nicely centered with the deform bones and the mesh at world axis. But mine are still positioned further out along the positive Y axis, at what appears to be the midpoint between the head and the tail of the respective control bones. I’ve retraced my steps and double checked my settings, but I still can’t deduce why I’m seeing different behavior than the demo. Any ideas?

[Andy Kynerd]

Not sure why it won’t let me attach the image to the original post, but here’s a screenshot anyway:

[Wayne Dixon]

If those are the world aligned bones then you will need to edit the mesh on the widgets.
You can’t slide them on the Z axis with that version of the BoneWidget add-on.

There’s a newer version coming this week in which you can.  That is on the development branch at the moment.

It will be pushed to the master branch in the next day or 2 as soon as I finish up making the video for it.
(But the code is ready to go)

So you can download the newer version.
Or just edit the meshes to match.

[Andy Kynerd]

Thanks, Wayne. To clarify, what threw me more so than that was, in the video when you create new widgets to replace the original ones, it looks like they appear automatically positioned with their median points already aligned at world axis. The screenshot I attached previously shows my scene after I created the new widgets and after I adjusted their scale and rotation. At that point I would need to additionally move them on y-axis back to world origin to center everything. Not a big deal, but it looked like you were able to skip that step and I had a nagging sense that I missed something. Here’s the exact frame from the video I’m referencing, when you first create the new widgets and they appear at world axis:

[Wayne Dixon]

Oh maybe the thing that threw you is that the Bone Widget (like all other tools in Blender) will remember the settings from the last time you used it.
In that screenshot – the slide is at 0.0

But if you previously used the tool and set it to 0.5 (super common)   – then the widgets will be offset.

[Andy Kynerd]

Ahhh, I think that must be it. Good to know, and I will try to keep that in mind. Thank you for your help. I’m quite sure I’ll have more questions, so I appreciate your patient guidance! (The whole Target > Local Space – Owner orientation / Owner > Local space settings on the Copy Transforms constraint is melting my brain a bit, but I will let it be and just go with it for now, heheh.)

[Wayne Dixon]

Maybe this will help.

Local space to local space:
When I move to MY left, I want you to move to YOUR Left.

Owner Orientation:
When I move to MY left, I want you to move to MY left.

I hope it does.

[Andy Kynerd]

That does help, thanks again! Now, I have one more, broader question about bendy bone rigs. Let’s say I have a stylized character jumping rope as part of a looping animation, where realistic, real-world physics are not necessarily a factor (going for cuteness over realism). Having completed the exercises up to this point in the course, I’m thinking a rubber hose-like approach with bendy bones might work for this, in terms of animating the character’s limbs (which are rather stick figure-ish) as well as the jump rope. Does that sound sensible? It’s probably going to be trickier than I first imagined, as a rigging beginner, but I really want to try to apply what I’m learning to actual projects in hopes that it will help reinforce the concepts for me.

[Wayne Dixon]

Try pulling apart the limbs on this rig
https://cgcookie.com/downloads/red-nelb-rig-blender-2-8x

It will be easier to use if you’re using an older version of Blender because the bone layers are non existent in 4.1 onwards.

But there are some bend controls in the middle of the limbs that are connected to a damped track on either end of a bendy bone.

Something like this will work.

[Andy Kynerd]

Ooohhh, interesting! This is just what I think I need — something to pick apart and inspect so I can see how it all comes together and works in context. Very helpful indeed! I’ll definitely take a much closer look when I have more time, but at first glance there’s one thing that’s still not quite clear to me. In the left thigh set up, one damped track constraint is on the thigh_def_out.L bone, and the other is on the thigh_def_in_MECH.L bone (which I’ve hidden in this screenshot because it visually obscured the thigh_def_in.L bone). I’m going to see if I can review the schematics and bone relationships logic in this section’s video for clues. Thanks again!

[Wayne Dixon]

I was less consistent with my naming back then (I’m always trying to improve)

The devs also changed their naming – so the in and out are now called start and end.
Plus a few small other things, but if you look at the concept of what’s going on it should make sense.

Both the handles aim at the middle bend control.

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