where to assign vertex groups for jaw

[Tristus Patton]

Ive seen it around SL, mostly with furry heads, there have a jaw that moves, which I know is done with an animation, but Im unsure what in the head would move like that.. I wish I had an example, but I dont. Basically what Im asking is:

Where should I assign the vertex groups for a jaw that could be pose animated to something in the head?

Im using a bones template I found on these forms, so basically I dont know a lot about what Im asking lol

[Kwakkelde Kwak]

The bones can't be altered so what you use now is all there is to choose from. Anyway, there is no bone for a jaw and you can't add one.

I know Medhue Simoni ( I hope I'm spelling it right)  used the neck for his wherewolf jaw, this does require costom animations ofcourse, not a big issue when you're an animator like he is.

Maybe there are other ways, but that's one I know of.

[Tristus Patton]

neck was the only thing I could think of also.. but yeah i dunno lol.. Alright, thank you for feedback

[Indio Quinnell]

I suppose it could be done by attaching the jaw to the "chin" point and then using a custom animation (do objects attached to "chin" move when the mouth opens, though?  I've never tried it), but I don't think this is actually how most furry heads do it.

Usually, the way this gets done is that the jaw is a separate prim attachment from the rest of the head, and the root prim is a 100% transparent sphere with a script that causes it to rotate around the Y axis; when the sphere rotates, all of the "jaw" prims attached to it move as well, so it creates the impression of the jaw opening and closing if you position it properly.

[Ashasekayi Ra]

You can also skin attachment point bones that have a single name. For example, the uploader will recognizes weights attached to "Mouth" but not "Left Ear".

 

For more information:

http://blog.machinimatrix.org/avastar/avastar-attachment-points/

http://blog.machinimatrix.org/avastar/the-second-life-skeleton/

[freston]

I'm pretty sure that limitation con be overcome with a simple patch to the upload code in the viewer. I'm bouncing off getting a mesh enabled viewer to compile under linux though so haven't been able to test it.

[Ashasekayi Ra]

---

freston wrote:

I'm pretty sure that limitation con be overcome with a simple patch to the upload code in the viewer. I'm bouncing off getting a mesh enabled viewer to compile under linux though so haven't been able to test it.

---

Yes, Gaia has brought up the topic of fixing that naming issue at the content creator user group. Hopefully, LL will fix it soon.