Best way to stretch & Squash a 3D character

[B.R.Rajeev]

hi guys,

I am doing an animation for a cartoony chracater. I plan to use bones to animate him. But the problem is how do i give him streches & Squashes ?

I would be thankful if anyone could suggest a solution.

thanks.

[Net Admiral]

MM Try to apply stretche & Squash modifiers to the bones rather than the mesh!!
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Body Science

[Merrow]

Never done anything like this myself but you might want to read about the XForm modifier if you are using max.

[Net Admiral]

well unfortunately any modifier applied to the bones won't affect the mesh!! But u could use transform gizmos on the bones and the mesh will deform accordingly!
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FIX PS3

[jon_leide]

Heres a little trick i used myself. Scaling and Rotating bones is generally a very bad idea, since it messes with the structure and gives really wiered result if you try to animate it.

but what you can do is when you done rigging your char and applied the skin modifer you place some helpers.

Try design you bones in a way that you key nodes can be resized with some links. Linking these nodes togeter using gizmos you can accomplish some really f*d up transformations by just moving a box. i used this to link some constraints to gether then i had a master control box to move, rotate or scale the model. and the best part the bones remained unspoiled.

I know bones might break your day becuase ther just bones. But then try not attaching all of them togehter and build servral parts for arms legs etc. then use the link stuff to bind boxes in a way which gives you total control and the right behaviour. (This takes ages so be patient. my first rigg alon took 2h of hard work)

Now punch up max and try doing this. I think theres even a references within the doc on charachter rigging and how to scale in a good way. Chekc it out!

/John

"I'm verbaly brutaly missbehaving the English language on purpous, OMG! Sorry lads."