So I don't know how to fix that but I do know who does, "Polyfjord " I'm sure you know of him, or of him, reach out from what I've seen him do that looks like it's an easy task. Hopefully this helps!
I don't know why youtube recommend this video, but you got this Bob. You'll crack it and have the best dam rigged bed/table thing the blender community has ever seen
Ian Hubert made almost this exact video on his Patreon! I think it's called "rigging gears" or something. He literally said the same thing, "this is so complicated and I don't know how to do it," but he figured it out.
Rigging is really something very hard for anyone thats no used to it. Last week I had to make a rig that was suposed to be very simple to do. I was kicked very hard.
My first tip is to make a root at the bottom where the legs are supposed to be, then a main controller on the top of the table, then have the legs work with a series of locked track constraints from the top of the table to the bottom of the floor. My biggest advice from a lot of frustration with hard surface rigging in the past is to use an armature instead of empties. Empties being their own separate objects can become very cumbersome to work with, where a single armature is much more manageable.
Not a riggin expert here, but my first thought is to create two empties for the bed on each side, then put a constraint on their Y-Positions and offset / multiply that with the X-Position value of your current empties. If that don't work, i'd look into IK-chaining the thing.
In geometry nodes "Bounding box" gives you enough data to make any object always stick to the floor, from bounding box plug "minimum Z" multiplied by -1 into set position offset. that's the general solutioin, you will probably need to input a collection and stuff
Hi Blender Bob, maybe it's easier to use a armature with the main bone on the bed. Parenting the bones from the feet to the main bone of the bed and use bone constraints like limit disctance and damp track. IK system with the bed bone as controller.
Just add a tramsform constraint now with flipped vallues. Than you can actually see the mechnism work as it supossed to. At leat in my brain that should work ;) looks complex indeed
It's not backwards, it's just not complete. You have the legs functioning as desired now you just have to take it a step further and make them work in tandem, and then make that work when you raise or lower the main frame or "bed". OR remake the entire rig.
Have you tried setting a constraint on the part supposed to lift, set the transformation and get the value of the legs and map it to the height of the part
do the whole rigging of the rest of the part in the end to make the lifting effect add a empty as a parent to whole object and animate it to using different action and use the action constraint on the levers rotation so when open the legs the movement of the empty also happen so it will look like the bed is lifting not sure if empty will work with action editor if not use the root bone instead of empty
I feel for you. I bought a rigging course from one of the Shrimp Gurus and I just could not get into it. Wish I could because rigging stuff makes it so cool. But in Moho, I would pin one part of the character to an empty.
i will make a empty for ground reference lets call it "ground" and other empty on top of bed lets call it " bed" then i will make driver based on distance of "ground" and "bed" empty, so when i pull up or down "bed" empty it will make wheel stand will spread out u can see close distance as 0 and far distance as 1, then it will be same as how u do it in maya (logically )
rig the bottom rail like you would a planed foot for a leg, that will keep your wheels to the floor. Also you should drive both of them, one side shouldn't move independent from the other when droping unless that a strange feature?
@@BlenderBob Oh that's neat. In that case then I would make 3 leg constraints. One master to pull them both at the same time and 2 sub leg controls to drop each side.
Add a bone to the top of the table and name it "controller bone", parent the top of the table to the controller bone, then add transformation constraints in pose mode to the bones you want to control, aka the bones that are perented to these 2 empties in your video, and set your target bone in the transformation constraint to the controller bone you just created. Set both the Tangent and Owner in transformation constraints to local space, and then simply change the map from and map to parameters to something appropriate. My guess would be map from set to either location or rotation and map to set location. Alternatively, you could probably set up an IK rig, but you would either have to re-arrange all your parenting for all your bones or re-make the entire rig. The transformation constraint in pose mode I think would be the easiest option...
Shouldn't the controller be actually set as base, so ground level. This moves the rig in world space. Than add up/down bone parent the complete bed to it. Than use constraint with transform on those legs with a limit constraint. So when bed is moved upwards, the legs push down. Making it look like the bed raises and lowers
I don't any good advice other that it can be done... but it's a complicated rig. I would easly comission a week to put it work. ...Blender provides ways to have this working. I made more complex stuff in the past, like biclicles with all those gear changes and suspensions working... not easy tho.
I've put together a quick example of how I'd approach it using an Armature and some IK constraints: ua-cam.com/video/aXLH_mAhx7Y/v-deo.html Keeping all the animation within an Armature will also simplfy the scene, as there will only need to be a single Action. Otherwise, each Empty object that you animate will get it's own Action. You can parent the objects that make up the model direct to the bones within the Armature.
yeah thats it, first using armature is better. My idea was use a bone and add transform constraints to those 2 controllers of the legs. than when you move the main controller, these leggs use flipped values so it will move up and down
There is a video from a UA-camr called "Corza" and he has a video called "Things and Stuff" which shows a very simple yet powerful way to rig stuff such as what you're trying to do...I think it will help a lot (I tried to post a link to the video, but my comment got deleted).
First of all, stop using empties. Completely. Don't even look at empties as a thing to use for rigging ever again. I'm dead serious about this; there is no reason on this earth to do it. When you start using an actual armature, most of your issues will be more easily solved. As others have mentioned, this is just a simple IK system. Make sure to lock IK axis (under Bone Properties - inverse Kinematics), so you don't get unwanted rotations. As a bonus, you'll get less issues with selections if you throw away your empties. Being in pose mode has a lot of benefits to it.
So you didn't decide in advance what's the actual actuator for the animation.. and so you didn't create a proper hierarchy (with "dummies" where it's needed).. Usually every rig you prepare should be "abstract" and functioning properly only with helpers (so that you will connect what you need only when it's time to do it).. The smartest usually try to create hierarchies that are selfreliant .. so that you don't need to throw anything away, and you can reuse everything you need all the times that you want.. For example.. the two legs, are exactly the same mechanism (even if they had different dimensions.. ) so if you prepare an "abstract" rig based only on helpers (dummies.. call it however you want).. you can just duplicate it (or reimport it.. cause sometimes Blender is not eager to duplicate a rig..). But.. Who moves what is first.. hierarchy is second.. abstract rig is third.. and actual connection of the objects is.. well the last one. A good rule is also to separate the movements in Primary, Secondary and sometimes Tertiary.. Primary are the one you move (or directly affected by the animation).. Secondary is.. for example the hydraulic piston.. Tertiary is the eventual flexing and bobbing of the tubes connected to the piston. Hope that could help you in this situation too.. good luck If I can help you, let me know.
Doing here a modeling where I need that my geometry stay "fixed" on my floor that have many "Z" values (it is a terrain). What I did whas apply a geometry node that "fix" the object on my floor, it is like a "dynamic drop it". Can this be a solution, apply this "drop it" modifier (geometry node) in the whels of the bed? Other option I cold try is create a script using Pyrhon, I did some here using the Chatgpt to solve some situations. On last days I discover how good is use Chatgpt to create scripts to use inside Blender.
to me ill just rig the upper table separately then drive the whole animation within just one empty lol... unless the director will ask if I can only move one side, by that ill just do it by hand.
wait - if you're using an empty to control the legs, wouldn't you just have to keyframe the empties into position for it to articulate when you move the bed? that's how leg IK works on a character. and in maya.
Been using blender for almost 3yrs just found this channel, wow!!
So I don't know how to fix that but I do know who does, "Polyfjord " I'm sure you know of him, or of him, reach out from what I've seen him do that looks like it's an easy task. Hopefully this helps!
I don't know why youtube recommend this video, but you got this Bob. You'll crack it and have the best dam rigged bed/table thing the blender community has ever seen
Ian Hubert made almost this exact video on his Patreon! I think it's called "rigging gears" or something. He literally said the same thing, "this is so complicated and I don't know how to do it," but he figured it out.
Rigging is really something very hard for anyone thats no used to it. Last week I had to make a rig that was suposed to be very simple to do. I was kicked very hard.
I think a simple IK system could work. Put it on the legs and you can lift the table structure up and down
Also seems to me !!
👍
I would think an IK chain with maybe some damped track constraints or simple parenting for the other parts.
Aye, IK. Glue those feet down
My first tip is to make a root at the bottom where the legs are supposed to be, then a main controller on the top of the table, then have the legs work with a series of locked track constraints from the top of the table to the bottom of the floor.
My biggest advice from a lot of frustration with hard surface rigging in the past is to use an armature instead of empties. Empties being their own separate objects can become very cumbersome to work with, where a single armature is much more manageable.
Yeah indeed. But I guess he showed it with overlays off
Also when having animations it would be better. Otherwise you end up with an action for each single empty. That's a nightmare
was watching on mobile, now on desktop i see indeed he's using empties, not the best solution i guess
Drive the leg symmetrically and use that to drive the table’s vertical position (Pythagorean theorem).
Not a riggin expert here, but my first thought is to create two empties for the bed on each side, then put a constraint on their Y-Positions and offset / multiply that with the X-Position value of your current empties.
If that don't work, i'd look into IK-chaining the thing.
In geometry nodes "Bounding box" gives you enough data to make any object always stick to the floor, from bounding box plug "minimum Z" multiplied by -1 into set position offset. that's the general solutioin, you will probably need to input a collection and stuff
Hi Blender Bob, maybe it's easier to use a armature with the main bone on the bed. Parenting the bones from the feet to the main bone of the bed and use bone constraints like limit disctance and damp track. IK system with the bed bone as controller.
Just add a tramsform constraint now with flipped vallues. Than you can actually see the mechnism work as it supossed to. At leat in my brain that should work ;) looks complex indeed
Easy, make a root bone and parent the important bones to it. Moving the root bone would move the whole structure
It's not backwards, it's just not complete. You have the legs functioning as desired now you just have to take it a step further and make them work in tandem, and then make that work when you raise or lower the main frame or "bed". OR remake the entire rig.
Have you tried setting a constraint on the part supposed to lift, set the transformation and get the value of the legs and map it to the height of the part
do the whole rigging of the rest of the part in the end to make the lifting effect add a empty as a parent to whole object and animate it to using different action and use the action constraint on the levers rotation so when open the legs the movement of the empty also happen so it will look like the bed is lifting
not sure if empty will work with action editor if not use the root bone instead of empty
I feel for you. I bought a rigging course from one of the Shrimp Gurus and I just could not get into it. Wish I could because rigging stuff makes it so cool. But in Moho, I would pin one part of the character to an empty.
Inverse Kinematics might help?
I might have to post my blender issues loooool. Part of me knows I’ll just have to learn something super complex and it’s scary
IK with limiting constrains could work on this.
Rigging. Is. Hell.
i will make a empty for ground reference lets call it "ground" and other empty on top of bed lets call it " bed"
then i will make driver based on distance of "ground" and "bed" empty, so when i pull up or down "bed" empty it will make wheel stand will spread out
u can see close distance as 0 and far distance as 1, then it will be same as how u do it in maya (logically )
Currently following Pierrick's course on the art of rigging and yeah, looks easy but it's not. Maybe try to contact him? Good luck!
Just have the height of the table be a function of the leg empty's horizontal position.
rig the bottom rail like you would a planed foot for a leg, that will keep your wheels to the floor. Also you should drive both of them, one side shouldn't move independent from the other when droping unless that a strange feature?
Having the legs independent is actually a feature I need to show. It’s to help people getting out of bed
@@BlenderBob Oh that's neat. In that case then I would make 3 leg constraints. One master to pull them both at the same time and 2 sub leg controls to drop each side.
Add a bone to the top of the table and name it "controller bone", parent the top of the table to the controller bone, then add transformation constraints in pose mode to the bones you want to control, aka the bones that are perented to these 2 empties in your video, and set your target bone in the transformation constraint to the controller bone you just created. Set both the Tangent and Owner in transformation constraints to local space, and then simply change the map from and map to parameters to something appropriate. My guess would be map from set to either location or rotation and map to set location. Alternatively, you could probably set up an IK rig, but you would either have to re-arrange all your parenting for all your bones or re-make the entire rig. The transformation constraint in pose mode I think would be the easiest option...
Shouldn't the controller be actually set as base, so ground level. This moves the rig in world space. Than add up/down bone parent the complete bed to it. Than use constraint with transform on those legs with a limit constraint. So when bed is moved upwards, the legs push down. Making it look like the bed raises and lowers
Someone posted a really great example a bit lower
I don't any good advice other that it can be done... but it's a complicated rig. I would easly comission a week to put it work.
...Blender provides ways to have this working. I made more complex stuff in the past, like biclicles with all those gear changes and suspensions working... not easy tho.
Someone sent me a file with a solution already. :-)
this is a lot easier if you have a CAD with all the joints then you convert to openUSD and setup the complex articulation joint structure
why the audio is just on the left side?
I've put together a quick example of how I'd approach it using an Armature and some IK constraints: ua-cam.com/video/aXLH_mAhx7Y/v-deo.html
Keeping all the animation within an Armature will also simplfy the scene, as there will only need to be a single Action. Otherwise, each Empty object that you animate will get it's own Action.
You can parent the objects that make up the model direct to the bones within the Armature.
yeah thats it, first using armature is better. My idea was use a bone and add transform constraints to those 2 controllers of the legs. than when you move the main controller, these leggs use flipped values so it will move up and down
Awesome job anyway. Maybe some hooking?
Maybe if you try to make some physics simulation, you may guess what's wrong.
I got a solution from someone on X
@@BlenderBob Great!
There is a video from a UA-camr called "Corza" and he has a video called "Things and Stuff" which shows a very simple yet powerful way to rig stuff such as what you're trying to do...I think it will help a lot (I tried to post a link to the video, but my comment got deleted).
First of all, stop using empties. Completely. Don't even look at empties as a thing to use for rigging ever again. I'm dead serious about this; there is no reason on this earth to do it.
When you start using an actual armature, most of your issues will be more easily solved. As others have mentioned, this is just a simple IK system. Make sure to lock IK axis (under Bone Properties - inverse Kinematics), so you don't get unwanted rotations.
As a bonus, you'll get less issues with selections if you throw away your empties. Being in pose mode has a lot of benefits to it.
So you didn't decide in advance what's the actual actuator for the animation.. and so you didn't create a proper hierarchy (with "dummies" where it's needed)..
Usually every rig you prepare should be "abstract" and functioning properly only with helpers (so that you will connect what you need only when it's time to do it)..
The smartest usually try to create hierarchies that are selfreliant .. so that you don't need to throw anything away, and you can reuse everything you need all the times that you want..
For example.. the two legs, are exactly the same mechanism (even if they had different dimensions.. ) so if you prepare an "abstract" rig based only on helpers (dummies.. call it however you want).. you can just duplicate it (or reimport it.. cause sometimes Blender is not eager to duplicate a rig..).
But.. Who moves what is first.. hierarchy is second.. abstract rig is third.. and actual connection of the objects is.. well the last one.
A good rule is also to separate the movements in Primary, Secondary and sometimes Tertiary.. Primary are the one you move (or directly affected by the animation).. Secondary is.. for example the hydraulic piston.. Tertiary is the eventual flexing and bobbing of the tubes connected to the piston.
Hope that could help you in this situation too.. good luck
If I can help you, let me know.
Thanks! I pretty much never do rigging so it’s hard for me.
@@BlenderBob I'd be happy to help whenever you need!
wow
Doing here a modeling where I need that my geometry stay "fixed" on my floor that have many "Z" values (it is a terrain). What I did whas apply a geometry node that "fix" the object on my floor, it is like a "dynamic drop it". Can this be a solution, apply this "drop it" modifier (geometry node) in the whels of the bed?
Other option I cold try is create a script using Pyrhon, I did some here using the Chatgpt to solve some situations. On last days I discover how good is use Chatgpt to create scripts to use inside Blender.
I'm so glad that I'm not you right now! 😅
Loooool
to me ill just rig the upper table separately then drive the whole animation within just one empty lol... unless the director will ask if I can only move one side, by that ill just do it by hand.
I need to show everything that the bed can do. So no can do.
wait - if you're using an empty to control the legs, wouldn't you just have to keyframe the empties into position for it to articulate when you move the bed? that's how leg IK works on a character. and in maya.
The thing is that the inclinations of the bed changes according to the height of the front of back legs.
You actualy have action constraint. It works more or less like a driven key
But I would not use for this. Only IK and constraints
just do it in maya
NEVER! I will not go back to the dark side