"awesome Spine" Tutorial

[animatix]

Here is the tutorial i've posted for the "Awesome Spine" setup. Let me know what you think?
Awesome Spine

[joojaa]

Nothing spectacular. Id say its OK, but well quite frankly its a bit on the self evident side.

[joojaa]

QUOTE(Animatix @ 10/09/08, 04:11 PM) [snapback]293099[/snapback]
All least try the tutorial before you dismiss it...

I did. Just because you take the effort to doing in a decent tutorial does not automatically make it fabulous. Thing is the world has gone bonkers because people feel that saying anything other than fantastic or great is bad. Well you know what 70% of everything is average, OK means its okay, average nothing spectacular. So no saying something is OK makes it worthwhile, although not necessarily spectacular. Thats what you asked for.

OK is a as important category as bad and good if the only thing you guys can bear is positive feedback don't do things. YOu must have average and bad on the scale or there's NO scale. So now people know its decent and wroth cheeking, but not necessarily paramount for their personal time so they shouldnt stop the press to chehk it out.

So no i didn't dismiss it. I just did not think it covered anything special for me or for many others. But is sure a good primer for regular stuffs for a absolute beginning rigger.

But yes do you want a dissection? Of my rating? See i don't see anything awesome. If on the other hand you do something i have never seen done before and execute it well ill hail your ass off

PS: If you really WANT a better rating you can same the same twisting with a few nodes less if you want to but no for illustrative purposes this is enough. Pesonally i use weighted average thus letting the user bias the spline if need mainly because you use so many plus minus average nodes as you only really need one (they all calculate same value so no need for more than one plus minus average making your rig a bit faster to do and execute but no biggie) All this drops the value. i didn't point it out because i don't think its necessary for a average rating. If i think doing that small change would have made your tutorial goo d i would have said so.

Thus using blend node instead of plus minus average. Also amendment yes you can actually also do the twist with equal accuracy with 2 nodes irrespectively of how many steps the spline has by using the spline ik's inbuilt twist value for drive. allowing users to add bones at later date if needed and not cluttering things up so much.

PPS: your tutorial would be bit better if you discussed some of your choices a bit more in depth. That's always a plus it lets the audience know why and how they should relate to the data.

[joojaa]

Well im willing to talk about this. But understand im not your mother or your teacher. My job is not to encourage you. Simple fact of life is that most stuff is not spectacular.

Everybody needs to hear this once in while. Yes it applies to me too. Im nowhere perfect, i appreciate the criticism. It means im being heard, and communication without anger is communication that has not touched the core. Truly heated discussions teach more to discussed but do not show up very nice on the side.

QUOTE(Animatix @ 10/09/08, 07:15 PM) [snapback]293111[/snapback]
Saying that the tutorial was merely average is fine, but its pointless to state unless you say why and how to make it better. It neither helps me or anyone else.

Yes half true nevertheless dont crawl up my pm for my opinions and then clean up your plate in public. So if somebody shouts godly and good WITHOUT justifying it its fine but not the other way around one must justify the opinion? But it does help. It acts like tag. for others coming behind it does not necessarily reveal the absolute truth, nor you directly but it allows for a critical look on the subject for those who come behind. Did it ever occour to you that i would have given you critiscism on you asking so. And i did. But yes the actual fact of it is I never told the method was awesome you did, also by publishing you took the responsibility of actually not tainting the idea sphere. im being a bit sarcastic i do understand you can not make right in one go.

Now there are people who i have offended on purpose because the kind way just didnt go trough to them. And in fact more than one of them is still friends with me to this day.

The matter of fact is i would have spotted this tendency for getting aggravated by your choice of naming your method. Im sorry for that. My fault. Just a question would you have felt so bad if it was somebody else who said this? and jut so we are on the same page i think its OK not spectacular but does have its merits.

Anyway i gave you 3 ways to make your thing better in last post. Do the simplest one and in picture:

http://faithofthefallen.files.wordpress.co.../10/figure7.jpg

eliminate all but one of the plus minus average nodes and connect the output form that one to them to each target. Youll save others 1/3 of the work for same result. IF you like the fact that there's many nodes, swap them out to blend nodes by node casting preferably maybe add this as a extra step called making it better (not all rigs will need this). As the blend node works like plus minus average in mode except it lets you weight them differently allowing you to adjust jow much each area twists. Now thats two of the 3 suggestions the 3rd figure it out.

There are some other things where you go a bit further then you'd need but i assume its more of your style thn anything esle. I want to stay out of style issues, you have reasons for personal style i cant object that.

PS: you still wont attain good if you fix things like this. I reserve above average to pieces that actually taught me something new or something thats not readily apparent for normal people.

[pixl]

Hey Animatix:
I don;'t have all of Jooja's expertise and insights (there's always room for improvement), but I found your rig simple and well planned and appreciate the tutorial.
Is there a reason that you used a joint for spine_1_fk?
One alternative would be to use clusters to connect the top and bottom CVs of the spline to the shoulder and hip joints. I don't know that this would offer an advantage, but it seems a more standard approach.
From an animation tool, the only recommendation I would have would be to place the fk controllers in their corresponding locations in the spine.
I see you have the squash and stretch in the sample - very cool.
I look forward to the squash and stretch tutorial.
Thanks a lot.

[verbatimline]

Good tutorial Animatix. We appreciate it.

You'll have to excuse Joojaa. When you become a genius, it will be much more difficult to be impressed. He/she has seen it all. Just read his posts.