Max assistance

[Chubbydan]

Hey guys,

Im looking for some help with max, its being a pain and i was hoping someone cud remember what i cant?

I have a custom spine rig which i learned sometime ago. It is a series of boxes that have been told to get their rotation information from the 'top' box. When linked together this makes a nice spine setup. After doing this and getting into the animating side of things keyframes for this setup will only go up to frame 100 and I remember there was a way of extending this by using the curve editor or something like it but for the life of me I cant remember what?

Please help!!!!!!!!!!

Cheers

Dan

[ghost-d]

Hi chubbydan.

Hope I uderstood you right:

http://img206.imageshack.us/img206/4647/help4chubbydankp4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[Chubbydan]

Hey Ghost_d,


thanks for the reply but that's not the issue. I do really appreciate the effort though, without having the file in front of you this is a bit hard to explain in words or even one picture.

Basically its a case that I have a rig, I can animate to my hearts content in the initial 100 frames that u start with on the timeline. Once you pass the 100 frame mark however the rig loses its functionality, the boxes are all 'linked' so that their rotation is controlled by the first 'top' box thus enabling them to move fluidly to give a nice curving spine. This linkage is lost after frame 100 and I remember something about extending the animation curves in the curve editor but I have tried playing with this to no success.

I can put up a small file explaining my process for creating this rig if people would like?

Cheers

Dan

[Parnell]

Yes please put a file up.
B

[BiG ToE]

so you extended the time line like Ghost showed, then you opened up the dopesheet/track view, and moved around some keyframes, and it still doesn't work.? Do you have the bone tool turned on, I know it will screw with everything, if you let it.

[GeometriX]

Hi Dan.

I'm trying to understand exactly what it is you're after, so just confirm we're on the same page here. Is this basically what you're looking to do? Bear in mind that I've only rotated the bottom, purple, box on its local Y-axis, and all the rest of the blocks are following along, making a nice curve:

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j85/GeometriX_Images/spine_bendy.gif

[Chubbydan]

Hey Geometrix,


thats right, that's what I've done but what happens is that the keyframes have now limited themselves to 100 and the connection which the boxes had is still there but not in the way I need them to be. I have experimented and it works sometimes but not all. I am uploading the file in question and will post the link as soon as its done.


Thank you all for you time.

Dan

[Chubbydan]

http://files-upload.com/files/636773/rig_setup.max

A small fish setup to illustrate what is happening. The fish should wiggle all the way through the animation but for some reason it stops at frame 100. I remember there was a solution ages ago and it involved the track views but can't seem to find where that solution is now?


I should mention the file is max 8

[Vikkie]

I had the same problem a while back but I can't remember how I fixed it.
I'm on Max 7 right now so I can not check your file but , have you tried clearing all the keyframes or moving a keyframe to 110th frame or so and see what happens.

[Chubbydan]

Hey Vikkie,


Tried moving the keyframes and nothing successful. Thanks for the reply though.

here's a re-upload of the file as the first site I used to host may have a limit.

http://www.megafileupload.com/en/file/25034/rig-setup-max.html

[GeometriX]

Hi Dan.

I can't for the life of me figure out what was going on before in that file, but to do what you need to accomplish is simple enough. You've already got the heirachy going from Box02 to Box06, which means Box02 can determine Box03-06's transforms, etc etc, great. The next step is to wire the local X rotation of each box to the next one down in the chain (from parent ---> child), so the inheritance from the linking is effectively doubled. That will give you the curving motion you want, while only having to rotate Box02.

Lemme know if you have trouble with that. I can upload the file if you'd like.

Edit: Try get the max file -here- (http://www.mediafire.com/?2zowzjtne1c), I hope it works.

[YdoUwant2know]

Greetings,

I know this in going to sound silly, but did you try re-initializing the constraints after you extended the time line?

It looks like you are using a Float expression and assigning it to the rotation of Top box correct? Well just try reapplying this after the time line has been extended. It worked for me.

What did step for step, under the motion tab, i expanded out the rotation information, right clicked on "X Rotation" went to properties. then i selected xrot, "Assign to Controller", and finally selected the X Rotation of top box.

I did the same for the Y and Z rotation, all the other boxes, and now it seems to work just fine.

[Chubbydan]

Hey all,


had real issues with this even today, I did post this same issue over at cgtalk and the answer was this

http://www.scriptspot.com/3ds-max/s...animation-range

its a small script that changes the animation range for the controllers but I have no understanding of why there was an issue in the first place? Crazy situation.

Hope this helps anyone else who comes up with this issue.
Cheers
Dan