Where the heck are Hip_L and Hip_R hidden?

[brkurt]

Hello everyone...

I've been exported the .mhx files successfully now, and I'm ready to do some serious rigging.
Problem: I'm animating a Taekwondo Karate Roundhouse Kick, and I need to find the control the allows
the character to 'cock' their hip; that is, drop one hip lower independently of the other.

I can build a rig like this myself, but then I don't have the shape keys anymore.

The Outliner in Blender 2.49b says the 'Hip_L' and 'Hip_R' exist, but I can't find them.

Any help would be appreciated.

[ThomasL]

Bone layer 16

The rig is defined in the file mh_plugins/mhxbones.py (for Blender 2.4). The table entry for Hip_L shows that it lives on layer L_HELP = 0x8000, i.e. only the last layer.

[brkurt]

Many thanks...

Now, how does that translate to Blender? I'm doing a taekwondo demo, because I think that
the future of Makehuman is not in elves and goblins, but in realistic human figures solving
real-world problems.

In a full roundhouse, the leg must be raised up parallel to the floor, with a Z-axis rotation of 45 degrees.
Then the leg must be rotated along the axis of the femur another 45 degrees; also the opposite hip has to be 'cocked', or
dropped down about 15 degrees. This allows the practitioner to remain in a stable upright position, and pivot on the foot
opposite to the one that delivers the kick.

I believe that it is a fair test of the rig; however, the second rotation is the problematic one.

[brkurt]

Hello...

Perhaps this screen capture--courtesy of Kwonkicker--will make the solution clearer.

http://www.geekopolis.ca/images/kwonkicker_roundhouse.png

and here's my rig, using an Alpha 4 nightly build from last week:

http://www.geekopolis.ca/images/ellie_roundHousePose1.png

[ThomasL]

I am aware that the current ("classic") rig has a lot to be desired. Instead of patching this old rig, I have been looking for alternatives. This can be seen in the different MHX files that are created upon export. Apart from the classic rig for Blender 2.4 and 2.5, there is also an attempt to use the Rigify autorigging system developed for the Durian project, see http://durian.blender.org/news/rigify-auto-rigging-system/ . The rigify file is only half-finished (no skinning yet), and it does not seem to work as smoothly as I hoped, so we will see what happens with this.

Another really nice rig that I have looked into recently is the Gobo rig, http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=172128 . This rig uses action constraints, so I must make actions and f-curves work in MHX before it can be applied to MH characters.

However, I don't plan to do much more work for Blender 2.49, because I have mentally already migrated to 2.5. There are also some rather annoying omissions and quirks in the 2.49 python API, e.g. no access to pole targets and copy rotation constraints always in world space, which make it difficult to make a good rig from python there.

[brkurt]

Excellent points, Thomas. What became clear to me as I designed my character was the importance of hip flexion,
and the need to create separate hip and femur movements for the martial arts demo that I'm making. I'm not a martial artist per se--I've been a power lifter for over 20 years--but I saw the need for a convincing hip/thigh movement was crucial. To get it right, I'm sure I'll need a lattice, but I'm going to start from the bone rig and create whatever kind of controls I need as I go.

[brkurt]

Hello Thomas, I found a work-around that is better than creating a new rig.
After the model has been exported to Blender 2.49b--which runs on all my Pentiums, 2.5 won't--
all I had to do was select UpLeg_L and make sure that both Hinge and Deform were checked/pressed
on the Armature Bones tab. Then I rotated the femur first, and I could do what I needed.

It shouldn't take too long to do my Taekwondo Full Roundhouse demo, using the Makehuman .mhx export.
Much better than creating my own shape keys!