Creating a turnaround rig

Hello All,

Can anyone suggest where I might find a Harmony essentials Specific tutorial on creating a character turn rig. Ie Front , 3/4, Side etc. Most of what I can find uses more advanced software features like node view and I’m getting a tad frustrated.

Any advice would be great. Having trouble sleeping at night. I keep animating in my dreams (is that normal?).

Regards Mike

That’s one way of doing it. But this is what I do…
Create a master template of your character with all views. Now create a template of each view by itself, 3q, profile, front etc. When you’re animating always drop in the master template to the timeline first, and then you drop in the templates you need as you go. I also make templates for head views so that when I need to animate a head turn its a lot easier than drawing substitutions. I recommend watching the tutorials on templates because there are a few things to do to make sure you create templates correctly depending on your version of harmony.

Thanks DessieX,

I just recently discovered the Webinars and they have been helpful. I am using Advanced. I think I have watched just about everything I can find. I will look closer into templates. That’s great advice and I like the idea of “heads on different templates”.

I started out making lots of little animations, experimenting and playing and now that I have decided on what I want to do I have come to a grinding halt.

I have this idea of making a really solidly rigged character I can use again and again. With that in mind I realise it has to be at least rotatable. I think I’ve just got more study to do. I am a hopeless reader so videos work for me and my learning style. Are there any specific ones you recomend?

Thanks again
Michael

I still recommend watching Toon Boom’s Karate Rabbit tutorials even though they are a few years old now and are for previous versions of Harmony/Animate. I use the same open rigging system and use drawings as pegs so that I can have a multi-view character in the same rig. It’s pretty complicated and they don’t suggest using this method anymore but it’s how I prefer to work. I’ve since adjusted and added to the rig so that I have a multi-view character, with drawings as pegs AND with deformers. Then I create several templates of the one character and drop them in as I animate.

If you have all your characters set up with the same rig you can mix and match heads, bodies, poses etc which speeds animating up SO much. The key is to make the layer structure EXACTLY the same and then drop them into the timeline on the matching layers. You can even set up a blink template to be used across all characters if you name your drawings the same and the rig is identical.

I think that the Karate Rabbit tutorials on templates are great for getting your head around what’s possible and there are some up-to-date rigging tutorials on Digital Tutors. You could also download the blank rig template from Toon Boom and see how it’s set up.

I’m considering making my rig template available for those people who prefer to have a multi-view character in the one template because I see it pop up a bit on the forum.

I know, it’s a lot to take in but watching every tutorial you can is the best thing to do. Then you’ll find a rig you like and can build from there.

My favourite tutorials are -
Karate Rabbit series (available on Toon Boom’s site but I watch on YouTube for HD)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TsWOE3r1w8&list=PLQahG_yqxIciMZ6PN2Suexdt7dMlJMHCU

Kym Bum Lee’s Bella rig:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_o-8gbGsHbWy4FNqD08pOg

Good luck!

Hi there,

I had this same query not too long ago. A professional who has been working in the industry for 9 years helped me out a lot by putting some vids on drop box for me to use.

As I understand it, the easiest way to make a character is to make absolutely every thing in pieces, which you can then manipulate, move and substitute for every view. Check them out and see what you think. :slight_smile:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/8fot2zxv909tzas/AAApZgvLYnj-Hut3nUxiGPk1a?dl=0

Wow thanks so much for that. I will definitely check out those two again. I haven’t watched the whole Karate Rabbit series but i think that’s pretty much want i want in a rig.

Thank you again. I hope one day i can return the favour and help you. Have a Great Christmas/New Year.

Wow Enzil, they were really cool. They show the cool possibilities for manipulating one set of parts. I think they are really clever designs. I have also been chipping through the Karate Rabbit Tuts and have found them really helpful. I didn’t realise there were so many. When you start at the beginning they actually seem really well paced and very thorough. I actually have to confess to learning some really basic tricks I didn’t know about or couldn’t make work. A classic example of this was finding the keyboard shortcut to the rotate tool !!! It had eluded me and seemed to be different in various tutorials. Anyway life will never be the same.

Thanks for the help guys.

Happy New Year DessieX,

I am about to chop into a test Puppet I am making to follow along with the rabbit series. I have made a rabbit also. Mine looks more like a stoner rabbit than a Karate Rabbit (not intentionally). I am just wondering. In the tuts she Copies artwork to new layers for the main parts but then Cuts artwork from original artwork when she does the sub parts (upper, lower arms etc. Is there a reason for this? I am thinking of just keeping Original artwork on it’s own layer. I don’t know why you would cut it up at all. As long as I keep each lot of parts on their layers. What do you think?

Regards

Happy New Year Hullaballoo!
I create all my characters parts on seperate layers. In the tutorials I think she uses those two different methods to show what you can do if you want to break down a character that is an “all-in-one” drawing. She’s showing that you can either cut and paste OR use the cutter. What you are doing is what I’d do. Seperate layers from the get go. Makes everything much easier. :slight_smile:

Thanks for the reply, I know it’s been a while but…(Just started holidays).

So, If I understand correctly, I basically create a puppet with multiple views under one master peg.
By manipulating the exposure I turn views on or off.

If I want to show a turning character I must manipulate all views each time I move the puppet. (Begin and end keyframes)

Am I on the right track here?

Re: The character on the homepage rollerblading on Glow balls. Is it only possible to do something like this in Premium?

The rigging tutorial for Essentials is available here:
https://www.toonboom.com/resources/video-tutorials/chapter/character-creation-and-rigging

It doesn’t specifically cover making a turnaround rig but it does cover the basics.
Essentially, for making a turnaround rig you need to keyframe the Z-axis and other
axes for the placement of body parts for the different orientations. So where a
single-orientation rig would require two keyframe (begin and end keyframe), the
turnaround rig should have 2x the number of orientations keyframes in the master
rig.

Hey Y’all,

I just purchased TB Essentials 15, and I’m going through the same problem (i.e. trying to create a turnaround character, and no Essentials specific tutorial). I looked through the suggestions on this thread, such as the karate bunny tut., and while it does clear the air a bit, I’m still a bit confused on which steps to follow and which steps to ignore (because said steps requires TB Advanced/Premium), and what/how this master template works.