[Bf-funboard] Empties in the bone hierarchy

[David Bryant]

You could be right but, the action editor should be able to use anything you 
throw at it ( as far as rigging is concerned). You should be able to use 
bones and non bones together. If the empties could be directly used in pose 
mode you would have the full range of all the shapes available and use them 
to their fullest potential.Object to bone level is not new.Proprietary 
animation systems in VFX and animation studios already use this technology 
for complex rigs.

The reason I coded the new empty shapes that blender already has is so that 
the rigger didn't spend his time modeling icons for his rig controls.This 
would just take Blender's rigs to another level.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jason van Gumster" <flaw at misaligned.net>
To: <bf-funboard at blender.org>
Sent: Monday, March 30, 2009 4:59 AM
Subject: Re: [Bf-funboard] Empties in the bone hierarchy


>
> "David Bryant" <aceone at bellsouth.net> wrote:
>
>> If the empties can be used without using them as a object shapes "in
>> pose mode" you can directly use them. As a matter of fact, Lightwave
>> has just put this empty into bone heirarchy functionality into their
>> package in their new version 9.6. Maya and Max can do the same as
>> well.It's not a new idea. Most high end packages have had this
>> functionality for years.
>>
>> You shouldn't have to have a bone "drawn" as an empty to use it in
>> pose mode.Just be able to use an empty itself in pose mode if you
>> want to use it in heirarcy.
>
> Ah... but that's the rub, isn't it? An Empty has no notion of what
> "pose mode" means. As far as what the other packages have done and can
> do, who knows how that's implemented? From userland it may look like
> you're adding a regular empty to the Armature hierarchy... but under
> the hood it may just be a bone drawn to look like an empty. The user
> just isn't told the difference.
>
> Now, if this is the route you want to go, have a go and try. It'll
> probably work fine since the changes are largely cosmetic. If you're
> pushing Objects to bone-level, though... you may want to wait until the
> animation system in 2.5 is fleshed out.
>
> But... I'm no authority.
>
>  -Fweeb
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