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Rank: Newbie
Joined: 6/21/2020(UTC)
Posts: 3
Thanks: 2 times
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Tool Station 3, from Labworks 2, along with the hose and smart prop connectors, have become a perfect match for my artistic needs. I've been looking for a prop that can function like a skulljack from The Matrix, and a modification of the laser tool at the end of the tool hose is visually perfect. The problem is, the hose, integrally built into Tool Station 3, the perfect mount for what I need, is mounted in a really bizarre fashion. The hose is not attached to the station, and there doesn't seem to be a way to anchor the base of the cable to it, because the end of the cable is the first segment, and where all rotation is referenced from. Bafflingly, the tip of the hose, where all the different prop-ends are mounted, is the parent of the rest of the hose. This has meant that I can't actually parent the end of the hose onto the base to lock it into place. Rather, because the hose is a fully-integral, but totally-detached, component of the Tool Station 3 prop, every part of the hose needs to be hand posed from the tip of the hose, sequentially to the back, with the desperate hope that you can eyeball it to fit into the base station prop. Any mistake you make with the first curve means you basically need to start the posing over from scratch, even with Easypose enabled for the bending. How on earth am I supposed to get a halfway-realistic bend/curve to the hose, when I can't really... bolt it to anything to stabilize one end of it? The attached image is the sort-of-mediocre barely-acceptable work of 15-20 minutes of constant frustration, compared to the more realistic bend I was trying to execute. I had to pre-position the jack into the spot and angle I wanted, all while desperately hoping I could bend the hose, running backwards, to a point to reconnect to the base. I want to be able to do this smoothly, without tearing my hair out. What am I supposed to do? Vinitharya attached the following image(s):
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Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 9/15/2012(UTC)
Posts: 376
Was thanked: 284 time(s) in 167 post(s)
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Honestly this issue comes up about once every couple years, lol. I'll help you best I can.
After years of working with the "hoses" issue, the general consensus is that it's easier to pose the hoses from the tool tip, which can be places exactly where you want it, then run the hose pose back to the port or destination device the hose should plug into. This method really only become problematic for animators, which are few and far between. The problem with having the hose anchored at it's base, then posing the hose toward the tool tip, is that it's actually for more difficult to get the tool tip exactly where you want to place it. Imagine a breast milking hose with a nipple cup that you have to place with precision on the nipple, it's far more difficult to try and pose that suction cup starting from the base and toward the nipples. It makes more sense to place the cup on the nipple then pose the hose back toward the milking machine where the room for error is less dramatic.
To help you understand the tool station 3, I have attached a diagram. There is a hidden 'base' part inside the tool machines port base, this 'base' can be used to move the entire assembly (port and tool hose). Place the tool port, like you have it on the wall, then move the tool tip, as you have, to the back of your characters neck. The first segment of the tool hose is 000. This has an Overall Length morph which can be used to adjust the total length of the hose if need be. The segment 001, 010, 020, 030 and so on have easypose master nodes every 10 segments, these segments have Bend All, Side Side All, Twist All and some xyz scale dials (y scale will adjust the length of the next 10 segments if you need a little more length). Play with these segments to pose the hose as desired. If you need a little more tweaking in between the 10 segments, the segments in between have a Bend Aft, Side Side Aft, etc, this will bend from that segment to the next master node.
Keep in mind the easiest way to find all these easypose nodes is the Scene window and to use the dials, use the Parameters All as shown in the image I attached, the easypose morps will be at the bottom of all the dials.
I hope this helps a bit. Once you get the hang of it you'll appreciate the way it's set up.
Cheers,
Davo davo attached the following image(s):
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 2 users thanked davo for this useful post.
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Rank: Newbie
Joined: 6/21/2020(UTC)
Posts: 3
Thanks: 2 times
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This is way more than an explanation for my issue; it's a theoretical grounding of why things are as they are, and a crash course in exactly how to manage both Tool Station 3 and the hose in general. You clarified so much, with so few words, and so few screenshots, that it all just makes sense now. Putting this explanation into a PDF and adding it to the in-program guides for these assets would be immensely helpful. The only thing I would add, that I discovered before I saw your response, was that selecting 7-9 segments, easy-pose bending them, and then moving up 3-4 segments, tended to produce very nice and smooth-looking curves, which gave me a level of precision and confidence I couldn't manage before, since those overlapping bends tend to remove the 'joints' you can sometimes see in sequential, non-overlapping multi-segment bends.
Thanks again, massively. I've been promulgating this solution among my buddies that were trying to figure out what the hell to do with the hoses, since they were perfect for what we wanted, but inscrutable to approach.
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Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 9/15/2012(UTC)
Posts: 376
Was thanked: 284 time(s) in 167 post(s)
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Hiya,
I'm glad this helped out. I'll try to create a more generic pdf tutorial to include with items that have easypose hose bending in the products, good suggestion!
Cheers,
Davo
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1 user thanked davo for this useful post.
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