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Creating Hierarchy
To build the hierarchy, you'll start with one or more meshes, and possibly some measurements on where pivots go. (For pure hybrid setups driven only by trackers, no meshes may be needed.)
GeoH objects are usually created using the GeoH Create, Surface Lasso, Thru Lasso, or Paint tools on the GeoH Toolbar. (Their buttons have detailed tooltips). Make sure that there aren't any already-selected GeoH objects. In each mode, hold shift while
clicking or dragging to create a new GeoH object. Use the Create mode to place the root object on one of the main world coordinate system planes (the one most perpendicular to the view from the camera). Use either Lasso mode or Paint to create the first GeoH object at the centroid of the mesh—this is the recommended method, as it minimizes interactions between the rotational and translational joints.
Tip: You initially create the “reference pose” for the rig—it is the position of the rig when all the GeoH joint variables are zero . It is often easiest to do this at the origin, with the mesh being deformed positioned to match the rig.
Tip: Use the wireframe mesh display mode when creating the hierarchy, to make it easy to see the interior of the mesh(es). In wireframe mode, clicking on a mesh requires that you click specifically on one of the "wires," but once you've done that you can slide off it to the interior of any of the faces. (Alternatively you could use a solid mode but turn down opacity, and turn on Outline Meshes also.)
For the simplest GeoH tracks of just a single moving object with no deformation, once you've created the root object, you're done rigging.
After creating the root object, continue by adding children, grandchildren etc, using the same basic GeoH mouse modes. The parent-to-be should be selected before starting the create the new child. You can monitor the hierarchy from the Hierarchy View, and make adjustments by dragging there.
Important : While the hierarchy you construct is equivalent to what you see in animation applications, the positioning of child objects isn't updated on other (all) frames until those frames are tracked (or re-tracked), ie by Play-ing through the shot. If you change hierarchy then immediately scrub, you'll still see the old tracked positions.
You need to pay attention to the location of each pivot (new GeoH object), since the placement and orientation define the rotational axes and zero positions for the joint values.
There are two principal cases: secondary surface effects such as moving cheeks, corners of mouth, bouncing belly, etc. versus structural deformations such as elbows, knees, necks, or car doors.
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