Biped rig will not move.

[shinigami87]

I am trying to animate a character getting out of a car but the top half (chest/shoulders) will not rotate! The pelvis moves fine with the legs etc but just can't get the upper torso to move

[angus_davidson]

can you post a screenshot or host the scene file somewhere so folks can have a look at it. Did you possibly constrain the root bone to something ? (ie to get the biped to move with the car ? )

[shinigami87]

Im not sure you would be able to tell from a screenshot but can post one if it helps. I have made the character a child of the vehicle, does that sound like the problem??????

[angus_davidson]

It does sound like you have some form of constraint that is preventing the top half from doing its thing. Try unparenting it and see if it solves the problem.

[shinigami87]

I just tried unparenting the character and nothing..... it's still the same. So frustrating! Do you have any other ideas? Thanks for your help by the way.

[angus_davidson]

I suspect you have keyed the constraint somewhere. That's one of the most common problems our students encounter. You basically have to go through and check on all of the bones, and all of the controls that you have only keyed translation, and rotation and (scale if there is a specific need).

If that cant fix it you have two options.

For arguments sake lets say you scene is 100 frames long, and the rig breaks at frame 65

1) Make a duplicate of the scene file. End the original at frame 65 and you can render that out. on the duplicate scene you can manually move the offending bits by hand for the remaining 35 frames.

2) Alternatively you can go back to a version of the file where you rig doesn't break and replace the one that is giving issues. Sometimes you can only go forward by going back.

Have you referenced your rig ? if so make sure it still working in new file with just the rig and not the car.

[shinigami87]

I tried looking through all of the bones but could not find anything that was keyed. I had saved a copy of my character separately and when i checked, it worked perfect so you must of been right (really don't know why i didn't check this first!). I hadn't done much animating so i decided to start again and so far everything is ok (fingers crossed).

Thanks again for your help, you have saved more tedious hours of hair pulling!!!

[angus_davidson]

Good luck ;)