This is Gus Gizmo, known in his universe as a Gizmo Mk I series robot (and origin of my username).

I originally built him around October 2000, after having AM about 2 months, and had no idea what I was doing when I built him. He's had a few minor upgrades to his mesh since then, but I was never satisfied with the original skeleton I built for him. It was just simple bones linked together and very difficult to control since the bones were just standard daisy chain format and had no interaction in terms of maintaining balance, etc.

I'd like to set him up with one of the later rigs for ease of control. I made an attempt at fitting him with the TSM2 rig, but that was a disaster as I had bones I couldn't figure out what to do with or get rid of since they didn't seem to fit the body's natural "joints".

I'm wanting a rig that's not too difficult to install, but gives me the ability to have him move as a more dynamic character, like I've seen with TSM2 and Squetch characters.

I'd like to use him for my Pass The Ball entry, if anyone can recommend a rig that might work for him... preferably with a tutorial available.

Thanks for any suggestions.
Heller.

Click to view attachment Click to view attachment

A robot should be the easiest character to rig of all.

It doesn't get any easier than TSM2. In My Opinion.

Most people have trouble for not following the step-by-step instructions in the manual that is found in the TSM2 folder in your hxt folder in your AM folder.



TSMBuilder gives you the bones for the right side of the body, which you the scale and rotate to fit your mesh.

Click to view attachment
(all the bones you see there will eventually be hidden by TSM, except the black ones)


TSM Flipper takes what you did after Builder and mirrors it to make the left side bones. You can attach CPs at this point and add fanbones if you need them. You probably wont' need many fan bones for a robot.


TSM Rigger the runs through the whole thing and hides all the above bones and leaves just some new control bones visible that you animate with. You never attach any CPs to these control bones.


If you're having trouble, post a screen shot of your bones after you have run Builder and arranged the bones.

Ok, I'll try that. I have one version of him in a TSM2 rig, but maybe I didn't follow the steps closely enough. I'll try from scratch again.

Thanks.

Always use the (s)cale, ( r )otate and translate (n) manipulators to fit the bones.

Don't just grab them and drag them.

This will keep the two-bone groups like the upperarm 1 and upperarm 2 straight and inline with each other

Work from the inside to the edges. Get the spine sized and positioned right first, then the thigh, then the calf, then the foot, then the toes. Likewise from the shoulder to the fingers.

Any success?

Sorry, got sidetracked with trying to come up with an idea for the PTB gag, plus getting a cat from humane society this past week, I need to get back on my robot.

And right now I can't find the Pass the Ball forum.