Jiggle Deformer Woes ;-(

[autumn]

Just getting round to using the jiggle deformer to simulate some muscle "vibration" and I'm having a few problems getting things to work as expected (as expected Everything seems to work fine if the character as a whole is stationary (but with moving limbs), but when it runs along (It's a horse), the areas where jiggle is being applied float out in front of the mesh and behave very strangely (this distance from which the jiggle'd points are offset form the mesh increases, as the jiggle weight is increased). I've tried putting the transform curves (for the character) onto an extra node, taking them off the root joint and turning on "Ignore Transfom" for the jiggle deformer, but the jiggle deformations still seem to be getting an extra transform from somewhere (I'm certain there is none).
Any ideas as to the cause of this anyone, or any general workflow / tips when using the jiggle deformer?

cheers
TomB

[movieist]

In reply to: Everything seems to work fine if the character as a whole is stationary (but with moving limbs), but when it runs along (It's a horse), the areas where jiggle is being applied float out in front of the mesh and behave very strangely (this distance from which the jiggle'd points are offset form the mesh increases, as the jiggle weight is increased

cheers
TomB

Ok I'll try and add some input here. I apologize if I list things that you already know about. Are you deleting your jiggle cache and then creating new jiggle cash for your work area when you make changes to your jiggle settings? What numbers do you have for your jiggle settings? If your jiggle is too high along with damping, stiffness, you will get funky jiggling. Try painting your jiggle weights if you haven't tried that already. I can't think of anything else until I hear back from you. good luck

[autumn]

Thanks for the reply, but I'm kinda sure it's something to do with the transformations on the character. When I have it just running on the spot, the jiggling all seems to work as expected, it's just when translations are added to the character, that the jiggling takes on some wacky properties. It floats out ahead of the character and the jiggling goes all crazy. Weights are painted ok, cache deleted, settings all ok(not that changing them makes much diffrence anyway). Gonna go try do this with softbodies now anyway, as the deadline's looming ominously overhead ;-(

cheers
TomB

[ragtag]

You might want to try using the Jiggle script, available here on highend3d instead. It's an expression that gives you fast Jiggle without using cache.

Ragnar

[movieist]

---When you select the geometry of your character how many different "jiggle" names do you see for it? Also could you tell me what your exact numbers are for your Damping,stiffness, and jiggle weight? For your jiggle cache make sure the name isn't ridiculously long. If you save your file a certain amount of times the default jiggle cache name could exceed max letters limit for a filename and therefore not save properly. Just rename the file to something very short. Hopefully you still have time to try and figure this out! I'll be happy to continue helping if ya need ....

[jtk77]

...someone should write a nice tutorial tyhat includes using the Jiggele deformer for somthing pratical..
I've had too many odd bits of wackyness with it . Tha'd be cool i think..but I might jsut be tired.

..........AHH! RUN! The monkeys are loose, and the fat one looks pissed!......

[autumn]

Cheers for the reply. My cache filename was indeed huge, so I re-named it to something far more sensible. Doesn't seem to be the cause the cause of my problames, however, as I mentioned earlier, the jiggling all works as expected when there are no transformations on the character (it's all FK'd), but it's limbs are a moving away (running on the spot). I could tell you the exact number for the various settings, but since I've tried virtually every variation and combination under the sun, without any real change in the behaviour of the jiggling there doesn't seem to be much point. Only the jiggle weight setting bahaves normally, scaling the effect from 0 to 1 as you would expect. Anyway, time has run out for me on this one unfortunately, I just hope I have more luck next time I try it out.

cheers for the ideas.
TomB

[movieist]

Sorry I wasn't much help. I still never heard how many different "jiggles" you applied to your object. When you first created the jiggle did you just apply it once. Or did you select other cvs and apply it multiple times? When You look at it with paint jiggle weights option is the whole body white or is it black with a few sections that are grey? Even though it's too late im trying to help you in case you use it in the future.