Transformer Bike

Brick334

What I got down below is a rig for a transforming bike. which my main goal is to well...get it to transform.

I'm hard at work right now, coming up with a method to get it to transform smoothly but its hard. I find myself conceptualizing three rigs which must work together in order achieve my goal.

1. A motorbike rig.
2. A transforming Rig. (a rig which carries the structure between bike and bot)
3. A bipedal bot rig.

Of course, any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I'll be posting as many updates as I can.

Brick334

So, I managed to come up with a rather interesting solution to my problem from earlier which was: how the Freaky Friday was I going to transform this thing between working rigs.

The answer came to me in the form a TV commercial. Long story short, I have a system that turns off/on and then on/off.

I have my bike controls which are initially the dominate controls or primary. Once I start transforming this puppy, I "immediately" turn "off" all the influences of that rig and transfer "influence" to my secondary rig which carries the bones between set ups. Once the bones reach their correct setup, the secondary system turns off, passing "influence" over the bones to the tertiary rig, which is the bipedal one.

Now the actual animation is carried out using a combination of driven keys, constraints, and driven keys. It would be the constraints I turn on and off.

My next challenge is effectively adding in the IK handles to finish off the rig.

Again, if anyone has any tips or tricks to make this easier on me, please for the love of all things power rangers drop me a line.

After this, I plan to see if I can achieve a similar thing in 3ds' Cat Rigging.

Here are some pics of what the rig looks like so far. Also, I hope I'm not stretching out the page too bad.


In the above image, the little things that look like "t" or crosses are called locators. Those have control over the bones via Constraints. The Curves are the controls whose influence I turn on and off accordingly.

Below is the bot in its "runner" mode. I further tier of animation and feet pop out of the wheels making it a full biped. Pretty neat no?

Harry-3dCraft

Very good idea, I loved the standard form of the bike and the rig. But is the transformer mode finished? I didn't quite liked that, it seems indefinite in the face and chest areas, and I think what I like less is the wheel sticking out from the back. You could put it to rest on the back like a shield, I think it would fit much more properly, but overwall it's a challenging character! congratzz

Selaznog

I very much agree with Harry; the wheel on the back should be flush with the body (or a shield on the arm). It will be much more aesthetically pleasing.

I also think the head should be smaller, with a stronger design

Brick334

Harry-3dCraft wrote: »

Very good idea, I loved the standard form of the bike and the rig. But is the transformer mode finished? I didn't quite liked that, it seems indefinite in the face and chest areas, and I think what I like less is the wheel sticking out from the back. You could put it to rest on the back like a shield, I think it would fit much more properly, but overwall it's a challenging character! congratzz

Hmm...shield you say...that sounds like a cool idea. My plan was to take it one step forward and make them into weapons but the shield idea grabs me more. I'm going to go back and revisit the design element and see what I can come up with. Thank you very much for you input, however what did you mean by the chest and face area being indefinite? do you mean unfinished? which if you do I really agree; my goal so far as been to come up with a successful rig that can transform and be used for animation so As far as "details" I had to cut a few corners.

Still, thanks for the ideas and for taking the time to take a look at what I got.

Brick334

Selaznog wrote: »

I very much agree with Harry; the wheel on the back should be flush with the body (or a shield on the arm). It will be much more aesthetically pleasing.

I also think the head should be smaller, with a stronger design

Thank you for the reference image as well as your input. To be honest I was afraid the head might be too small but I'll shrink it. I also agree with you both on the wheel and Ill see what i can do to make it more aesthetically correct. As for the design of the head, I wanted to stave off to much detail until I got a working rig setup but it looks like like I'll be changing a few things. Thanks again.

Brick334

So this would have to be the new rig setup. I went from FK to an IK/FK system. Ill be posting a transforming anim soon as well as some other notes but for now this is what I have thus far.

sybrix

Interesting! Don't usually see a lot of rigging stuff on here. Can't wait to see this thing actually transform