Is it possible to limit head movement to one axis? Lockable axis (feature request)

[austinb31862280]

As the title states, I am wondering if it is possible to limit head movement to one particular axis? As an example, if I wanted to only move my head left and right, on the X axis, without moving up and down, even slightly, is there a way to set this up. I have spent many hours trying to find a way around it, as well as searching the Ch community for an answer, but no luck. I've tried sticks, pins, and I even tried to set up as a walk cycle, and control the movement with the arrow keys, but again that didn't work. If there is a work around, or legitimate way to do this, then I would much appreciate it. I almost have a perfected recreation of a character from an already animated character. It is quite exciting, just fan art related purposes, as well as technical breakthroughs with multi parted character design, which I will share on YouTube soon, once we figure this out. Thanks you.

Also, if there isn't a way for this to happen, then consider this a feature request. Lockable axis for head movement.

[alank99101739]

Forum lost my longer reply on my phone. The survey did not fit on screen so could not cancel it.

Shorter reply - could you have Head as a separate puppet to the body, then use the Transform behavior to move the head? You can then control X and Y movement via blends (turn off face behavior ability to move head).

[austinb31862280]

Interesting thought, but sadly I will need the face behavior, as it is in the nature of the character for it to follow the face.

[alank99101739]

Frequently you have a root puppet with body and independent head attached to the body. I wonder if you reversed this - made the head a part of the root puppet, then made the body independent whether that would stop body movements from affecting the head?  Or have both the head and body attached to something in the root of the puppet. I assume you want the body to move (arm movements etc) without the head moving up and down. Fundamentally that means the head needs to attach to something that does not move, which is what independence is for.

The other one is to try setting various Face behavior settings to zero - Head Position Strength, Head Scale Strength, Head Tilt Strength, Parallax Strength. That might stop any tilt of the head.

For example, here is someone's puppet from the forums I was helping debug the other day. I made the head not independent and the body independent:

I then put draggers on the body, arms etc. Note that the head is not affected. Is this what you are after?

[austinb31862280]

This is actually interesting, and I will look into using techniques like this in the future, but let me make a quick video on youtube to show what I'm trying to do, because I don't think I explained it well enough the first time. I am extremely close to finishing this part of the character, it's just a layering nightmare to get what I want created without the proper parameters. I will respond later with the video, I'll add notes into it so that I can properly show what I'm trying to do.

Thanks for your help so far.

[alank99101739]

Going further (just messing around), I moved the scarf separate top level layer then attached the body and head (both independent) to the scarf. I then added a Transform behavior to the Head, and recorded a take adjusting "Position X" so the head slides perfectly sideways (but never up/down).  Note, you can use a transparent object instead of the visible scarf - just need something to attach things to.

Here is the result

[alank99101739]

(Oh, the scarf was called "neck" in the previous screen shot.)

And you can still move the puppet around using the root puppet Transform behavior so the puppet can move and scale with everything else going on.

But yes a video explaining what you want to do could help! 😉

[austinb31862280]

x axis locking - YouTube Here is the video. I hope this helps explain what I'm trying to achieve.

[alank99101739 · Accepted solution]

What is triggering the movement? Eye gaze? Face parallax? I could not see how you were making the face move in a way that the whole head was not moving.

I don't know of a way to make face parallax limit movement. I would be using a dragger or adjusting Position X with a Transform behavior, or using a swapset with several fixed positions and moving between them.

E.g. eye gaze you can stop eyes going up and down using Pupil Range restrictions, so you could probably have a separate eye gaze behavior.

Are you trying to do live streaming? If not, then it is common to record a take then record over the top a second take. E.g. put a Position Transform on the sublayer and do a second recording to move the robe consistent with the face movement. There are several tools available - you have to work out the best way to achieve it with what is available.

The only ways I can think off the top of my head is using a Transform to do movements (you control X and Y separately), or use swapsets (e.g. hook keyboard buttons 1-9 up to 9 different views, so you don't get smooth animations).

The are other possible hacky tricks like trying to use Y scale transforms to see if you can scale down on the Y axis to see if that affects the movements - draw that part of the puppet scaled say 10x higher (stretched) then use a Scale Y transform and see if that makes that part of the body move slower in the Y direction as a result. (Grasping at straws here!)

But my gut feeling is don't attach the robe to the face - use a Transform and record a Position X take where you adjust Position X as close as you can in sync to the face. Or a swap set with a few profiles, so the robe jumps between profiles, not a smooth transition.

Good luck with it!