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    Shape Key Driver

    Question
    Bennie Griffin(bc_griffin)

    Hey CG Cookie,

    I’m a bit of a noob when it comes to adding drivers to shape keys.

    I’ve created a rig and a shape key driver to manipulate the pages for my book.

    When I play the animation the shape key is not affected by the driver.

    I know why this is happening…

    When I look at the driver editor, I notice a negative value flow instead of a positive flow hence the reason I am unable to see my shape key being driven by the driver.

    I don’t quite understand why this is happening.

    If you can assist me, I would very much appreciate it.

    Thank you.

    Bennie


    0051-0146.gif

    Reply
    • Martin Bergwerf replied

      Hi Bennie!

      It is really hard to see on this GIF, but if the Driver is the X-Rotation of the Bone, it might be using the Bone's Local X-Axis and that is pointing in the Worlds negative X, so when you think an X-Rotation is positive, it is actually negative...

      But again, I can't really see much on the GIF, if I try to zoom in, the low resolution hinders me too much (and many information is hidden).

      If it is something else, could you please provide a link to your .blend?

      1 love
    • Adrian Bellworthy replied
      Like Spikey said, it is hard to see, but I can make out the direction of the bones.

      It is normally a good idea to have the Z direction of the bones facing up when the deformation object is at rest, in this case I guess when the book is closed.

      You can change this using the roll angle in the N-panel when in edit mode of the armature, and the bone you want to change selected.
      1 love
    • Omar Domenech replied

      Learning to do this kinds of things for WBW would be such an amazing help. I need to get into drivers and learn proper rigging.

      1 love
    • Bennie Griffin(bc_griffin) replied

      Hey Guys,

      First of all my apologies for the distorted GIF. I'll rather upload an image file next time.

      Thank you so much spikeyxxx and @adrian2301 for your time and diagnosis on my little problem.

      Man you gentlemen really know your stuff.

      Martin, you were indeed correct in pointing out my bone's Local X-Axis. Thank you for elaborating on this.

      Adrian, you were also correct in stating to keep the Z-Axis facing up. Thank you for this great rule of thumb.

      My shape key driver is now functioning properly.

      The plan here is to delete the animation and use a Controller Bone instead to drive the shape.

      I currently have 3 rigs (Hardcover, Pages, Lock) that will be controlled by a Master Controller.

      You guys are the best!!!

      Kind regards,

      Bennie

      • 👍
      1 love