Forum: Poser - OFFICIAL

Subject: Parenting, IK Chains, props, translation, I don't understand this

WarKirby opened this issue on Jul 03, 2008 · 10 posts

WarKirby posted Thu, 03 July 2008 at 8:29 AM

Firstly, my PZ3 is here: http://www.magotek-industries.com/Files/sheath_back_sword_preparentchange.pz3

I need some help with this. My aim is just to get two static poses that I can import back into the main file. I'm animating a sword, specifically a sheathing animation. SO the utmost important thing is to get the sword where I want it, and the arm has to just accomodate that.  Just rotating parts of the arm really isn't going to work well here. So I'm trying to parent the hand to the sword, and translate the sword around, having the arm automatically adjust itself to keep ahold of the hilt.

Where are things going wrong in the following example:

  1. TO start with, the sword is parented to the hand, and in a position that is almost where I want it. I make a backup save file that will not be overwritten here. This is the file at the top of this post.

  2. I go to frame 25, which is closest to the pose I want. I select the sword, and set a keyframe for it. This is necessary to prevent it from moving in the next step.

  3. I unparent the sword, by changing it's parent to Universe. Without the previous step, the sword would now move somewhere odd. I've found that with the keyframe set, it stays in place. The sword and hand are now not linked in any way, I think.

  4. I select the right hand, and change parent to the sword. This causes a slight distortion to the wrist which iis due to the sword having been scaled down a little. I think this is irrelevant though.

  5. At this point, I save the pz3 in a seperate file, then test the bvh export. It works perfectly. I reload the pz3 to get rid of the extraneous keyframes.

  6. I select the sword, and translate it to where I want it to go. Basically just down a little, so that the blade is touching the top of the sheath. The whole right arm moves realistically to accomodate it, exactly as intended.

  7. I attempt to save the current pose to the library, as it's one of the ones I want.. At this point, my figure's neck stretches stupidly long, the left arm goes into a straight out pose, and the sheath on the back falls to the floor. What the hell is going on ?

  8. I make a reasonable assumption that the parenting has something to do with this. I reload the pz3 from step 5, and I change the parenting back. Firsly, I change parent the right hand to right forearm. This causes the figure's tight hand to remain in place, but the forearm and shoulder return to what they were at the start, resulting in a stupid looking distortion in the wrist.

In any case, I can't seem to get a useable pose out of this. Please help. Someone in another thread suggested deleting IK chains might help, but I'm not sure how to do so. The Heirarchy window only has options for creating chains, not deleting them. and the button is greyed out.