small update, or like not really Ziva sim updates, but underlying technical rig updates for it:
no longer using IK for the spine, and revamped and rescripted the lumbar, thoracic and neck portions of the rig (using the guidance of Andy's oldtut), fixed the automation behind a lot of what turned out to be unwanted/incorrect/mirrored orientations on the right side (mirrorJoints doesnāt give what I need nor does something like jammOrient; and building off of a T-pose from the get-go wouldāve avoided the issues i was having, but w/e I eventually figured it out), and added breathing (using the mechanicsinsight gained from StanP's Aclandreference... and there's a slight issue at lowerEnd of sternum, but i'll fix), and the most minor: added template for planned zivaexcitation controls (also used for breathing; the yellow ctrl ) to be used in conjunction with LOA's and RBF's
one day, later on, i want to revamp my entire rigging script to make more use of parent-offset matrices or w/e... will need to trial&error those things. the current state of my rig will prob be a bottleneck for scenes with multiple characters
i think, even though it takes me a longer time, itās cool to be able to weave between the scripting portion, to the rigging portion, to the animation/mocap portion, to the modeling and sculpting portion, to the Ziva portion, to the hair portion, and then eventually the texturing and cloth modeling and sim
and then James Cameron just released a MasterClass on directingā¦. and so then thereās gonna be the storytelling aspect LOL. not to mention studying acting principles
and then of course Iāll need to add structure for facial animation
Iāll come up with something crude, but ultimately gonna wait for Ziva faces to see how to implement/combine with everything
Update 07/13/21 8am:
there seems to be an issue with the Ziva sim for objects connected to or after the follicles, when running on 2+substeps...
i may just revert back to ik spine
Update 07/16/21 5:50am:
wasn't the follicles... per se (am i using that phrase correctly? LOL); it was a simple parenting issue LOL
3 days trying to troubleshoot, including scripting with other rigging methods... only to go back and just accept that it might take me awhile, but after surrendering to that fact... figured out it was just me overlooking the parenting of a certain sub-chain of joints
apart from techniques, such as those found on these forums and the documentation by the great Ziva team.... after that, it does come down to a mental game.....
which is one of the things i hope to show through this thread....
small steps as many days as possible, never giving up, (especially when it feels tough as hell... like here where rigging isn't exactly my strong-suit; in fact, Iām not great at any of these things ā Iām just trying to learn and know enough to do what I need to do)
AND AT THE END OF THE DAY SOLVING IT FEELS SO GOOD xD
but i'll see once i do some code cleanup and run my whole rig script altogether LOL (it works in a broken up test setup)... cuz i need to sleep
Update 07/24/21 6:31am:
after going back and forth between 4 techniques for spine/neck (including the follicles, and the other 3 are somewhat similar to each other, using ikSpline)......
... i've realized i can't have everything
the problem with folliclesMethod is that it still doesn't fully work on substeps2+... but the workaround is to just bake the skeleton (otherwise, it's like the skeleton position is always at origin)...... and then just use substep1 for general blocking
previously, i didn't have to bake the skeleton into alembic... but oh well.... it's a tradeoff i'm willing to make
... who would've thought.... all this trouble just to add breathing lol
(but i also revamped my code -- removed a lot of legacy modules/features that i thought i would use-but thanks to Ziva and how it led me to having more experience with moCap and whatnot-- i now know i won't use; simplified certain segments of the rigging.... starting utilizing more matrices.... changed some naming conventions... and other things here and there)
Update 07/26/21 8:41pm:
alrighty... pretty much done with the rig-coding revamping.... and pretty much back on track to troubleshooting ziva muscles
even the constant having to reskin the skeletal bones to the joints was getting annoying so i scripted that out too
so pretty much everything to this point is scripted out (maybe apart from the actual ATOM export/import dialogue, but that's not so much a big deal)... so of course if any errors occur... i can always just rebuild everything to this point from scratch within a few minutes
i'd say the two main things that took me the most time was: deciphering some of the convoluted parts i stupidly made in the past (this script is the first and only python project i've ever written--and it's also the first rig i've built but have just been building upon since--and also during the first time i refactored things near that time... i didn't understand my own preferences and how to keep things on the simple-side for myself)......... and 2... as usual... i like to test a lot of things out so that i don't experience that "but what if" as much (i.e. what if it worked by addressing this or that variable, or this or that combination, etc.)
i'll still spend time on it like everyday... but as a break to recharge more, i also will split more of my time to play some overwatch as well for a bit (i think going through all the modules in my previously-more-convuluted-than-necessary-scripting taxed a certain part of my brain a bit too much LOL... and although i know enough coding to get the job done... and i'm always learning... i don't think it's necessarily my strongest suit....... in fact i think my strength comes from knowing enough of different disciplines to an extent and connecting them--enough to achieve a certain thing..... as oppose to being super amazing at one; for whatever that's worth)