Hi,
I am having trouble getting a proper rig for my puppet made of 3d layers. I am building a "realistic" shadowplay, this is what I got so far: http://is.gd/XbmTMC
Nice to look at, but the puppet is putting out a lot of timeout errors: "timeout while waiting for the engine". (Right arm lost in expression...) Until now it was okay to copy some expressions and modify it according to my needs. But this one is challenging in its complexity, hands down!
This is the puppet with the features I need:
For the IK of the arms, I used DuIK.
Essential for "realism" is a feel of physics, that's why I need the delayed features, such as the swingy legs. (Until now I did it with a Null which is aligned to the hip anchor. A second Null is following the latter one with Elastic Connection Script by Da Ebberts applied. This Null is used as part of a torso-pelvis-bone-system (DuIK). Rotation of the pelvis is passed on to the legs.)
I am trying to reduce the amount of expressions. (I am actually quite desperate and said about this because I will have to do a lot of animation by hand. I never imagined that it could be a problem to have a lot of expressions.)
There's one important thing - the swinging of the legs - that I can't do without expressions. But this very expression (Dan's Elastic Connection Script) also got timeouts...
Questions:
1. How do I get rid of timeout errors? Is this a hardware or a software/project problem?
2. Is there a better/different/simpler way for some swingy legs? (Elastic Connection offers a tad bit too little control for me.) I started with Newton 2, but I need 3D which is not supported.
3. How can I manage to be able to rotate the whole arm, or the whole puppet? If I do this now, the controllers for the hands and legs go mad. You know, I can't parent the controllers to the torso/master since they need autonomy.
Specs:
AE CS6 11.0.0.378, Win 7 Ultimate
Intel i5-2500K, RAM 24GB DDR3-1333, nVidia Geforce GTX 460, SSD OCZ Vertex 2