Make one limb follow the other - Solved

jerickson_jel

Everyone on this forum is always so helpful.  I have googled this topic a few times in an effort to find a way to get 2 limbs to follow one another. Mostly for the legs.  If I have a character that is about to sit down I would like to have both legs bend at the same time.  That part is easy but when I apply a pose afterwards I still want the legs to follow each other.  My google search tells users to edit the joint in the property editor.  However I do not see any kind of property editor in Daz 4.8.  Is there another way in order to make limbs follow each other.  This would also be great for the arms if the character if moving their arms up and down like a bird it would be really easy to adjust with this ability.  Thanks in advance.

Richard Haseltine

The Symmetry command should work, in that it will make the left (or right) leg (or arm) match the right (or left). Select the bones you want to chnage, or if you want to adjust the whole of an arm or leg just pick the top-most bone, then go to Edit>Figure>Symmetry. Set the first option, Nodes, to Selected, set the second, Propagation, to None if you have all the bones you want to change selected or to Recursive if you want to affect unselected children too, then set the desired direction (left to right or right to left) and click Accept.

DDCreate

Ya know, I think this answers the question I just asked this morning. I wish I'd have seen this thread first! Thanks Richard!

jerickson_jel

I appreciate the quick answer.  I love the symmetry feature and I use it quite often.  I was hoping for some type of rigging option so the limbs would follow in real time.  I know I can set the pose, apply symmetry and then do a spot on Puppeteer.  It may not be possible but I really want to know what they meant in the past by using the property editor.  Thanks Again.

Richard Haseltine

You could create an ERC link with the Property Editor (now replaced by Property Hierarchy and Edit Mode in the Parameters pane) to slave one control to another - that would let you drive both legs from oen leg, but I don't think you coudl use the two-way linkage of a clone or lias as the signs would differ between legs.

jerickson_jel

Cool.  I will have to look into that.  Do you know of any kind of a guide or tutorial explaining how to do the ERC link?  Thanks

 

Richard Haseltine

If you right-click and put the Parameters pane in Edit mode you can right-click on a paramater and select Show in Proeprty Hierarchy, so use that to get one arm's bend control (say). Then find the other arm's bend control in the Paramters pane and drag it across into Controllers or Sub-components>1st Stage (additive) (depending on whether the oen you are dragging or the oen you are dragging to is to be the master). You will probably need to open the options under the property in the hierarchy and chaneg the scalar to -1. The main issue here is that any update to the figure will overwrite the paramaters and so remove the ERC so you probably want to save this just as a character preset, not try to save the modifications as assets.

jerickson_jel

Awesome I have been wondering this for several months now.  Thanks so much for the easy to understand guide.  Now that I know how to do it I can keep the tactic with me in case I need it.  Thanks again!

jerickson_jel

I am sorry to open this back up but I just went to edit the property editor and everything was really easy.  However I should have specified that I want the limb to follow the other during an aniblock.  I know that I can lock bends and what not and the bone will not move during the aniblock.  I am trying to do something similar but make one leg follow the other.  Also when I make these adjustment in Property Heirarchy and then save the scene does it mess up the all Genesis figures going forward? Will it stay that way for just that scene?  I am afraid to save anything on account I dont want to brick one of my genesis figures.

 

Thanks again.

Richard Haseltine

As long as you don't save as an asset any chnages should apply to the current scene only. As for linking the legs, are you wanting to override the actual settings on one leg and replace them with the other's? I don't think that can be done, it would be more a question of using Symmetry after the fact (though I've never tried using Symmetry with an AniBlock).

jerickson_jel

Thanks Richard,  You are always so helpful.  When you say use symmetry are you referring to just the Shift + Y command or is there a way to actually make "Real Time Symmetry"?

 

 

Richard Haseltine

Just the shift Y command, I'm afraid.

jerickson_jel

Ok no problem.  I started playing around with using nulls and pointing and I am getting close.  If I wanted to try something such as deleting all the bones from one entire leg and then weight mapping both of them to just 1 bone how would I go about trying that?

 

Richard Haseltine

Assigning the polygons on the left leg to the weight map for the right would remove the effect of the left bone - the problem would be handling the partial weights at the bend zones. Weight maps can be copied and pasted (right-click menu) but I would expect that to clear the weights that are already n the map, for the right-side bone. You could make one bone's bends aliases of the others, which is how the twist/bend bones are handled.However, both aliasing and weight-mapping would be permanent changes, not just affecting one aniblock, and I was not sure that aliasing would be a good solution as you would presumably get the second weight (right or left) overriding the first with possibly unpredictable results.

jerickson_jel

I want to try it actually.  As long as when you say "Permanent" you mean just for the scene.  No matter what I do I do not want to destroy one of my Genesis figures.  What tool do I need to be in to copy Weight Maps is it with the Node Weight Map Brush?  When I use this tool nothing seems to go red like I have seen on videos.  I must be missing something.

 

Thanks

 

Richard Haseltine

Yes, with the Node Weight Map Brush the copy command is in the right-click menu in - I think - the Tool Settings pane list of maps.

jerickson_jel

I probably seem like the biggest idiot but I am trying the directions you gave me and am getting nowhere.  Do I really just select the left shin, copy the X parameters in the tool settings Then Select the Right Shin and Copy it?  Do I need to delete anything before I do this.  When I copy the weight map it seems to be pasting it over the Left Shin again.  Do you know of any kind guide that is out there that will explain this further?

Richard Haseltine

I'm not at all sure it would work, but you'd be trying to copy from the left shin and paste to the right. Genesis 3+ use only the Genreal Weight map, the older figures you do have all of the parametrs with their own maps.

jerickson_jel

No worries.  I appreciate the guidance.  The easiest thing I have found is to just use the point to and make a null.  I can do one for the shins and a separate one for the thighs.  I can also accomplish what I need using Puppeteer.  Again I am sorry to have opened this up again I just wanted to make sure there was not another way available.  Thanks again for your help.