I am trying to rig an arm using the realistic arm tutorial. The first problem I am having is right from the get-go. The first step is to add IK to the shoulder bone and that is fine. When I add the IK, the effector nicely moves the whole arm around. Very good. The next step is to add IK with a twist effector to the rest of the arm. When I do that, I lose the ability of the shoulder effector to move the arm and it looks like the arm is dislocated in several places and the end of the arm is pinned in place. Also, when I add the IK with twist to the arm, the tutorial says to deactivate the CHOPS and move the twist effector to the elbow. First off, the CHOPS were created with the export flag turned off and second, whether the export flags are turned on or off it doesn't matter, the arm gets twisted when I move the effector.
Later on in the tutorial it says to middle click on the end of the arm bone and then ctrl+click to start the hand bone at the end of the arm. When I do this in the front view, the new bone snaps to 0,0,0.
Also, is says nothing about mirroring the arm. I think that that should have been addressed with a rig as involved as this one.
The last thing (well not really, but this post is becoming lengthy) is when the tutorial says to parent the hand bone to the wrist mover null reset the rotations to default and then unparent the two. When I do that, the arm bones jump to somewhere else. Has anyone else had these problems?

For the deactivation problem you're having, it is related to the same thing as you posted about the other old character tutorial. I searched and found an older post that talks about it:
http://www.sidefx.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2086 [sidefx.com]

This tutorial was made for H5.5 so it's been a long time.

EDIT: I downloaded the movie and looked at it again. I drew a bone chain similar to that in the tutorial and added the kinematics and every thing worked as expected. But then turning off the export (orange) flag on CHOPs step needs to be different of course according to the link above.

edward
For the deactivation problem you're having, it is related to the same thing as you posted about the other old character tutorial. I searched and found an older post that talks about it:
http://www.sidefx.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2086 [sidefx.com]

This tutorial was made for H5.5 so it's been a long time.

EDIT: I downloaded the movie and looked at it again. I drew a bone chain similar to that in the tutorial and added the kinematics and every thing worked as expected. But then turning off the export (orange) flag on CHOPs step needs to be different of course according to the link above.

What version of Houdini are you using?
If you are using 7 and you drew a bone chain with no K and then added IK to the first bone, creating an effector that moves the whole arm and then added IK with twist to the rest of the arm, you are telling me that the first effector that was added functions exactly the same as it did before the second IK was added? I find that hard to believe. I just did it just now and the results were desasterous.

One more thing. When the woman in the tutorial is creating the thumb chain and she says to hit the r key to rotate the thumb bones and when she does this, the handle changes from the traditional three axis handle to a sort of red umbrella looking thing, I can't seem to make that happen no matter what I do. A re-make of this tutorial is definately in order. What is using version 8 going to be like, “Blender”?

The umbrella thing is an object specific handle. Tab>Object>> select something. Try it for a camera of lights. You will get different handles depending on the ‘state’ you are currently in inside the viewport.

I'm not sure what problems you might have had with the arm tutorial, however, the splitting of a bone should always be in the plane of the original bone. Personally I never use the parent off an existing bone option when Drawing bones in the bones+ state. I have had trouble clicking off the tip of a bone afterward. So I can understand your trouble there.

Oh and for the blender comment. Well, if and when the G5 laptops come out, it 8.0 works on that (just like Blender) I'll be happy.
-k

thekenny
The umbrella thing is an object specific handle. Tab>Object>> select something. Try it for a camera of lights. You will get different handles depending on the ‘state’ you are currently in inside the viewport.

I'm not sure what problems you might have had with the arm tutorial, however, the splitting of a bone should always be in the plane of the original bone. Personally I never use the parent off an existing bone option when Drawing bones in the bones+ state. I have had trouble clicking off the tip of a bone afterward. So I can understand your trouble there.

Oh and for the blender comment. Well, if and when the G5 laptops come out, it 8.0 works on that (just like Blender) I'll be happy.
-k

Well you didn't answer my question. How do I rotate the thumb bones and keep the rotation axies with the bones?

I'm sorry for you.
-k

thekenny
I'm sorry for you.
-k

What in the world does that mean?

Nice icon. Buy the ticket, take the ride. hehehe

the_squid
Nice icon. Buy the ticket, take the ride. hehehe

Been there done that, outlived the master.
Now, maybe an answer to some of my questions?

I didn't get too deep into your problem, harlequin, but I followed most of the H5.5 tutorials and yes - there were some slite problems, - but thinking a little bit - and voila! The solution is always very close. Patience, man, some thinking and creativity and I'm sure you'll do it.

Harlequin, I'm on 7.0.192 and for me it's like this…

Press ‘s’ for select mode, pick a bone and the regular 3-axis handle pops up. Any bone you select now has the regular 3-axis handle.

Press ‘s’ for select mode, hit Enter, pick a bone and the umbrella handle pops up. Any bone you select now has the umbrella handle.