How do I parent objects or attach for animation?

Brycescaper

I have an animation I wish to create, that of a kayaker (parented to the kayak) paddling wih both hands on the oars, moving back and forth, up and down,in sync. Trouble is, I parent the oar to the kayaker, but I can only choose one body part to control the oar (in this case, the right hand). I cannot repeat this with the left hand because GF2 is considered a single object, so I cannot parent the left hand to the oar, because the left hand is not considered a single object, but of the kayaker. How do I resolve this so the paddling of the oar can be done with either hand with the opposisite hand staying in place on the oar? I want both hands to be paddling simultaniouslyon the same oar.I tried the opposite, parenting GF2 to the oar, but in twisting the figure and the oar, the hands weren't parented in place because GF2 is a single figure.  How can I syncronize this?

Here is the kayaker (without kayak, obviously) with the oar parented to her right hand. The left hand is roughly in position, but wont 'grab and control' the oar. It's an issue of heirarchy. is there a work around to achieve a similar result or am I resigned to still-frame renders (at 30fps rendering imn iRay, a three-minute kayak race could take 900 renders, at a few hours each frame in my tropical beach and resort setting, each frame not generated automatically but each left hand position adjusted manually to look as if it were still gripping the oar,  the camera manually moved precisely in sync (remember the oar is parented to GF2, the camera cannot be) and re-rendered. I don't have that many years to live just to create a passable animation like that. Can it be done, and how?

Brycescaper

A thought came to me-- creating two oars, grouping them together, then parenting oar 1 to the left hand and oar 2 to the right hand? No wait, that's backwards, I'd need two figures grouped and two oars grouped together... OMG I hope there is a simpler solution than that...

 

Sven Dullah

Brycescaper said:

A thought came to me-- creating two oars, grouping them together, then parenting oar 1 to the left hand and oar 2 to the right hand? No wait, that's backwards, I'd need two figures grouped and two oars grouped together... OMG I hope there is a simpler solution than that...

 

LOL!!! Seriously I don't know your workflow but I think I would parent the oar to her chest, animate one cycle of body/oar movement and then make the poses for collars/shoulders/forarms and hands. Then just copy paste the keyframes using keymate. As you said you cannot parent the oar to both hands so parenting it to the chest wich is the center of movement would make it easy to pose one arm then use the symmetry function to copy the pose to the other arm.

Brycescaper

What I like about parenting to hands is that the paddle doesnt always rotate symmetrically nor is each stroke the same angle and speed... plus I would have to create the hand poses for both hands from scratch... the Summer Island kayak oar is difficult to pose at the right blade angle while hand control of the oar is easier... I was looking for a way to keep the other hand gripped to the paddle to asymmetrically follow the lead of the parented hand, with adjustments. I'll try two grouped figures and two grouped oars, keeping one of each hidden and see how that works out... by keeping one of each hidden as a dummy I might get the result i wan ifI can still parent the group figure to the kayak.

Syrus_Dante

the Summer Island kayak oar is difficult to pose at the right blade angle

Why not fixing that - select Joint Editor Tool and place the center point for rotation where it should be - in the center. Then animate the oar / paddle - with the rotation point in the center this should be no problem.

Maybe use the Point At property in Parameters pane Property Group General/Misc and let the oar / paddle "Point At" a Null node (choose a target) at the side of the kayak - that you can animate to rotate in a circle or lets say more like a oval - but this motion path can be defined as you like. And also can be displayed with some plugin mcjTracePath DS3,4 more details here mcjTracer plugin DS3 PC 32bit.

Next create two Null nodes and parent them to the oar / paddle where the figures hands should be holding it and use some script from mCasual like:

• mcjAutoLimb2015 to let a limb reach a target point and follow it

• mcjHoldOn to let a limb follow a target point and keep orientation of the last in chain (like the hand)

• mcjOptimalPoseA to bring two selected nodes closer together with a percentage to control how much

...with these it should be quiet easy to arcive this animation. For more realism let the oar / paddle also move sideways (x-translation of the oar prop) if the paddle stroke reaches its end point and add the Pose Cotrolls Torso Twist / Bend to the figure animation - the hands will loose grip - but no problem just run the script again to realing the hands back to the oar / paddle during animation.

Once one left right stroke animation loop is done you can create an AniBlock with AniMate2 or use bLooper for DS 1,2,3,4 to repeat that motion.

roger4038

Is it possible to "attach" (or "pin" or "glue") for example the "Right Hand" of a Genesis 3 Male to the "Pelvis" of a Genesis 3 Female? What I want to achieve is that when the "Pelvis" of the Genesis 3 Female moves, the "Right Hand" of the Genesis 3 Male follows along as if it was "glued" to the "Pelvis".  

Richard Haseltine

Yes, using a parentable IK target in DS 4.12.x.x