Playing around with Bones

It's often said in some circles, the best way to learn something is to teach it. Yesterday I was confronted by having to teach something that only appeared 10 days ago. This was the poor, but respectable result.

Timing is all over the place. Joints are not in the right place really, but passable...

This is using the new (old) IK or Bones feature.

What you do is a number of Flash symbols, link them together with "Bones" and then when you move one part of the model. the other parts move in sympathy.

It's called inverse kinematics.

It's a process that allows more, and simpler naturalistic animation.
This is the structure I added using the Bones. Since this was the first time I'd ever used them, I didn't realise that the way I had done it, the shoulder would articulate from the heart and not the shoulder.

This then required careful use when I tried to animate it.

Next time I'll add far more hinge points and also restrict their movement so things like feet can't turn upside down.

Below is a screenshot of the arm moving. All I did was to drag the hand and the rest obediently follows.

The other thing, which I knew, but didn't do because this was just messing' was to prepare by producing a storyboard with the all important timings on them.

This would have prevented the animation looking a bit lazy when he's supposed to be zooming off into the sky.

For the flying sequence, I did a screenshot, the one here, resized it, flipped it and then did a loop the loop motion tween.

The background is a bit of rust I found in Google.


Leave a note if you like more info, or to see more.

Designing(?) puppets/automata

This is a rough drawing for a puppet. It's not very imaginative, but I quite liked it. I used the metaphor of a puppet for mental health issues some time ago - the idea of someone else - or another, less controlled part of your head pulling the strings.
This pictures was based on an artist's lay figure. I have the notion that I could use that at least as a prototype and maybe as a way of getting the rough shape and articulation. They can be brought now for around £3-4 in the shops, and almost you couldn't buy the wood for that. Certainly it saves a few hours of cutting and shaping.
Right now I'm not quite sure how to do the joints. Just stringing would mean that they would turn in unnatural poses, so either a cloth or leather hinge comes to mind.
I did get a couple of smaller figures to play with, but I think that they will be too small to work with and possibly too light. But I'm going to give them a go once I've figured the articulation though I shall replace the heads.
Really I need to be turning paper into tangibles. Perhaps that should be next week's task.

Designing the Ghost House

In the posting I did about the doll's house that we are building I mused about whether or not it could be automated to give the appearance of people or things living inside it.

Since then I thought a bit more and I think it's entirely practical that such a thing could be done and the diagram here gives an idea or two.

First up is using puppets - or automata - to give some motion to it. The mechanism can be hidden in the roof or floor - depending if they work by string or wire. Here you can see a ghost coming down through the floor and another skull making the same trip. Although these are shown using cranks, intact I'd probably use small servos or stepper motors to allow them two be moved individually. While the romance of brass cams and steampunk mechanisms appeals, using electronics gives more control and would allow interaction between the ghosts and the viewer in a less predictable way.

The last ghost, sitting bottom right in a chair is a variation on pepper's ghost a victorian illusion that I keep find now days being referred to as a 'hologram'  - it's not. It's a simple partial reflection that unless done live isn't even stereoscopic. In the use of the effect above, the originating image is a LCD screen built into the floor. You can see the reflective glass at 45 degrees and the ghost will apparently sit on the chair or move around.

I don't suppose I will ever build this, at least not in this form; but it was a good think through and design.I also quite liked the drawing that I did - at the moment I'm still into grunge and imperfection in a big way.

SS April 2015

The house that Steve and Ruth built.

OK, so this is a Quay kit (http://www.quayimports.co.uk/d004_fantasy_villa.html) that we picked up last year. Lots of parts, abysmal instructions and does hold together without glue. Brought it because Ruth always said that she would like a doll's house - so decided that this would be the one. To be honest there are not many dolls that size/scale, but I thought it would be an interesting exercise building it. Been on the go now for six months. Didn't do much over Christmas periods, brought some titchy furniture for it a week ago and that revived the interest.

Here's the front with all the furniture drying on the balconies and verandas. Some are more successful that others. All of them, leave gaps for the imagination - i.e., they are not perfect facsimiles of the originals. Have a look below at the bathroom furniture.

Not finished yet! Painting roof tiles. Quite happy with them once I've done3 some but taking some time. My hand isn't as steady as it was, and I don't seem to get the paint in the right consistency. 

View from the back. All the time I've been building this, I've been wondering how you could add some life to it. I thought of an idea recently that I'll put up in a separate blog posting.

Interior, washroom. Too small for the bath to stand in so just and on-suite loo and washbasin. Although you could confuse the wash basin for a sewing machine.

Adaptable? Animatatable?

Got two of these fellows. Bit small and they don't bend too well. Not sure if they could be used as animation puppets. However, I'm reasonably sure I can adapt them as marionettes. Tonight we will see what surgery can do. Will post some diagrams later. 

PS That's Ruth behind them.

Starting the Automata - work in progress.

Pu

This is a project long in the thinking stage. Basically it's an animated, interactive display, modelled on the animated tableau that used to be in seaside amusement arcades. They're all gone now - although there's a fine collection in Rye at the Heritage centre.

The plan for this one is to make a working fortune teller, although if it looks anything like these pictures then it will be a surprise. The visible part will be an animated puppet, and the hidden controls will be based on servos and probably controlled by an Arduino or a Crumble - I like the Crumble because it's simple and cheap, although it may not have the versatility to do what I want it to do.

These sketches are just trying to work out a prototype. Brought some balsa wood yesterday to make one up and trying to decide what it should look like. Was going to use ceramics for the puppets, but clay is just far too heavy.

In case you're wondering how the puppet will tell your fortune, you'll have to wait for a later blog post when I've worked out some technical details.