VRChat Avatar Tutorial - Contact Toggles (Grabbing Objects off your Avatar)

ko-fi.com/sippbox
Avatar Contacts can be used in a variety of ways, including using them to toggle objects by grabbing them off of your avatar. This video will show you how to do exactly that, in the form of grabbing a prop off of an avatars hips.
Toggles Tutorial: • VRChat Avatar 3.0 Tuto...
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VRChat SDK3: vrchat.com/home/download
Music used: • Michael Wyckoff - Anal...
#VRChat #AvatarDynamics #VR #Contacts #PhysBones

[@SippsAvatarBox]

I should mention, constraints will only work on PC avatars! If you're doing this for a quest avatar, you'll instead need to use 2 seperate objects.

[@mintyvmiku6866]

I just did this whole thing for quest and it took so long I feel dumb as hell

[@shrillr3d293]

You couldve told us that in the begining 😭

[@theofficialpippin225]

Can you possibly explain what you mean by this a little more? It seems like the whole thing is a little dependent on using constraints

[@shrillr3d293]

@@theofficialpippin225 Im guessing that he means that, you should have the item in your back and in ur hand (a duplicate) then u need an animation for on (which will turn on the one in ur hand and turn off the one on ur back) and then the animation for off which is the opposite

[@theofficialpippin225]

@@shrillr3d293 that’s what I guessed, im gonna try it out in a bit when I can

[@Wikiwi]

I've literally been trying to figure this out on my own with little to no knowledge outside of VRC stuff in Unity and then you come along with this miracle. You're a lifesaver!

[@dimdude1]

Dude, I love your tutorials. They're always clear, clean, and easy to follow. Plz keep up the great work. And thanks!

[@AnthonyAgresta]

I've been trying to figure out how to do this for a while now, thanks!

[@Yash88]

Great Job Sip!

[@CaseFace5]

Wonderful tutorial as always Sipp, I never could understand the whole parameter driver part of this setup when friends explained it to me but this made it a lot more clear. Thanks!

[@PurifireGG]

you should also add a part that says, "Don't rotate or move the prop when using the parent constraint, rotate the game objects that the prop is zeroed to." I accidentally skimmed over the part that said to move the game object and spent hours trying to make my object move and work properly.

[@ZacharyTrainer]

you saved me minutes to hours of my life. ty

[@3DMVR]

bruh spent an hour so confused

[@3DMVR]

bruh its just the prop position it can be moved since you grab the sword through another contact entirely, confused myself with my own labels, i thought that was what recognized you grabbing it instead of "Hand R" since I had it labeled Hand Constraint

[@3DMVR]

EVERYONE SHOULD SEE THIS AND SAVE HELLA CONFUSION!!!

[@Velocity_AU]

FINALLY, I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO FIGURE THIS OUT FOR MONTHS, ALL THE FAILED TESTS

[@zoldenmkbm7841]

tysm helped a lot

[@SkyZi_]

Oh, i was actually thinking about doing that!

[@soundsofapollo]

Thank you

[@VrmastermindOffical]

thank you so much for making this video. me being able to complete this literally made me cry tears of joy. Keep making tutorials for stuff idk lol

[@senkodev]

Another great tutorial, thank you very much Sipp 💜

[@starcrestcustoms]

I've been doing this all wrong for months, wasting my precious physbone count by simulating contacts using physbones for grabbing objects of the body, this is going to change everything! Thank you so much for the tips Sipp!

[@Some_random_kid611]

this guy is the santa of vrchat but instead of giving gifts he gives us amazing tutorials! thanks man and keep up the great work!

[@nesnalica]

thank you for the tutorial! I was fooling around with CR and CS myself but was always wondering why it was so laggy. I never added the avatar parameter drivers. not adding them always caused the animation to play for some people but not everyone.

[@Psivox69]

Bruuuuh I love you. You always drop a vid right when I need the info.

[@Rekunance]

Thanksh for making these videos free Sippy! They helped a lot!

[@EleanorTheChupa]

I needed this for one of my upcoming public avatars

[@tedtubegaming]

This would have made for a great tutorial about 2 weeks ago! Thanks Tupper!

[@mandoza1695]

ngl was looking for a guide on this yesterday

[@luissantiago5163]

Ayy cool

[@Smash_ter]

2:10 you don't need to do that really. You can just record the animation without going into play mode. Make your animation and when you're done just click the preview button in the animation tab. It makes it a bit easier to work with as the bicycle pose bug is not an issue in 2019

[@alwaysyouramanda]

*clears throat* 😱 Since when!?

[@Smash_ter]

@@alwaysyouramanda since 2019 was a thing. I know because I made like over 65 meme avatars in Unity 2019

[@roongamingepicly]

Ah…I uh, I had it happen a few times. Is that strange?

[@toastedprinny]

This broke my avatar a few weeks ago... I had to redo everything and i did this by mistake lol Thought i was working on a clone but wasn't and then the rig was stuck like that even after removing the FX

[@Smash_ter]

@@toastedprinny you might've done odd

[@zoterodisuke4398]

I just asked about this a few days ago, thank you so much

[@hunterx2210]

Sippbox, can you also show tutorial how to allow other player to grab object on your avatar and move it away?

[@paladinpv8460]

Thank you so much sipp!!

[@REO-777]

arigatou!

[@LevelXeven]

I've made something like this before when the Avatar Dynamics first released and I wonder if this tutorial will fix the Desync Issues when you have more than 3 Contact Toggles

[@xpreacherx]

If the object you want to toggle (ie. knife/gun) is offset from the Hip/Hand constraints go to the constraint settings of the parent and unlock them. After that move the object to match with the constraint so the contact sphere properly centers around the item.

[@space9932]

tysm

[@3DMVR]

this didnt help my issue the other comment did, you dont move the prop for the hand position, instead you adjust the thing its constrained too (obvious in hindsight, the prop kept moving and wouldnt save positions), i did set active after adjusting the literal prop the first time to get back position.

[@bradenlynott44]

Watching this a year after post because its a solid good tutorial to kick off getting into avatar creation and editing with complex stuff, you do great work, please do more !

[@jaydenbelle1783]

I’m so interested, I want to know how some individuals make amazing animations that change the environment?

[@stubbystubby]

This is a long shot, but hey maybe you'll answer: I'm an index user and often run into the issue of when I wanna grab objects or put objects in my hand (with this method or other methods) I'm required to basically utilize the gesture layer to lock my fingers to where I need them to be. Problem is, I have no idea how to set it back to index finger tracking without resetting the avatar. I've got the toggle prop working as in the video and that's great, now I just need it so my hand is doing a specific motion around the base of the hilt of a sword I'm using so it doesn't look... Well, stupid. Is it possible for you to maybe explain (even in text form honestly) how I could achieve this? This is specifically an Index user issue so I don't know if you'd know how, but would really appreciate an answer if you did.

[@myamarcial1633]

Can you do a skin color shift using radial puppets tutorial? I cannot figure it out!

[@Cinnnners]

I just want to say after watching this video I went to ask for help. One of your official discord helpers was so condescending. I asked for help building a system similar to yours (a tiny bit more advanced, I managed it by myself in the end) and instead got berated for unpacking my prefabs which is apparently totally taboo (even though, looking back at this video following, you'd unpacked your avatar prefab) and told that I needed to place every animation in a seperate layer then use an avatar paramater driver for efficiency. My rig was already set up, the problem was getting a phys bone and a rotation constraint to be compatible. They refused to actually help me with my problem and instead got all snarky because my rig wasnt optimised to their standard. Just overall rude and unhelpful. Just made me feel bad for asking in the first place.

[@tvhe4d]

Can you make a tutorial on how to make a gun or something like that including how to add the sounds and the shooting of the gun pls

[@MaliciousGrim05]

So I followed this step by step and even double checked everything that was shown in this tutorial however I wasn't able to actually 'grab' things off of my avatar with my hands (using the fist gesture). At least the menu toggles work though :)

[@shai380]

Curious if you ever got it working, I'm in the same boat 😢

[@modraxyen1109]

very helpful! ty for all your effort

[@HackTheG1bs0n]

so lets say i have a weapon on my back that i can grab with my right hand over my shoulder i have made it ,but can i make it so i can toggle the whole thing off or on so whenever i dont want these contacts or props ? cheers on tutorial helped alot thanks

[@koizumiizumi5426]

hey Sipbox, been trying to wrap my head around the slider toggle, I have a button up shirt asset i wanna use, and it has Blend Shaps to Open and Close the shirt along with a few other blender shapes. I just cant figure out how to do so, is this mentioned on one of your tutorial videos, and i just missed it, as i am quite dense to this type of thing DX

[@YuJay]

Do you have a Tutorial on Props that allows other people to use your props?

[@Dragonfire1000]

Can you also do something similar with an avatar that already has the items separated. for example, my character has a crown on his head that is a separate mesh but is part of the blender file, would I have to export his crown as a separate mesh or can it be used as it is. I should add its also parented to the head currently

[@Velocity_AU]

Question! So we dont need to put PropGrab onto the avatar parameter list like we do with the Prop parameter?

[@Doc_2BDamned]

Is there a possibility for a quest version of this video? Because I almost managed to do it myself but failed miserably XD

[@bizz7612]

Another great tutorial as always. I hope other VR Platforms adopt similar systems so we can see this sort of thing in more platforms than just VRChat.

[@valzzu]

i Really wish that constraints would work on quest

[@Buru_BunRU]

Will there be any contacts between putting things on other peoples body for quest? Like you grabbing an knife and stabbing someone and it stays on them until u grab it off them?

[@tyroneplayzgames9270]

what if i already have the props in their positions will this still work?

[@Rxsie18]

hy there. after i grab the sword (in my case) i am not able to put it back on the hip and after i retoggle it, i can't even grab it from the hip. do you know why?

[@jippy9049]

Can you and Or Have you Done a Video On how to make a Static Item as an avatar toggle. Similar to the Pride wicker and How Its flag is a static toggle that Remains in that spot when the Player and avi Move around. Would you pleeeease Do a video on this?

[@alterwolf4200]

How do you do to see the blue and yellow circles of the avatars??? 0:06

[@xemply]

mine isn't working and i have done everything and when i go in game i even used debug and all the values were correct but it still didnt work also when i did the expression thing it set the prop parameter to true but it didnt go into my hand

[@mikethespartanvoger1772]

Should i add anything to the root transform section in the grab menu?

[@lancemoontail2676]

Okay. How would I do this if i have the prefab attached to the thigh. Keeping the Base locked to the thigh while being able to grab the knife whenever.?

[@antoniocruz-xd4us]

Could you make a tutorial on proximity switches?

[@ftkirito6304]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/aXvUmIZje5aAatE

[@aaron_taro]

YEAAAAAAAAAAAAA

[@KlausTheArcticFox]

im having an issue after i zero it i cant move the prop to position it please help if you can

[@C0smic_Star]

Hey I have a question, I'm trying to make a ghost avatar that only has a ghost tail (it's for a friend) and I'm having trouble trying to make it work basically it turns into a statue everytime I upload it regardless if it's in perfect t pose or not, does anyone or you know how to make that kind of avatar?

[@luisf.gawlak3412]

where i can do the download of model ? thank you so much

[@adhityea]

can i use this to give chocolate to friend? is it toucable by other player?

[@2xenos1]

this is cool and all but what I and most people really could use is how to set up animations that can be activated for props once the prop is toggled on, like pulling a gun out then having it fire, or pulling out a party popper and then popping it, I've tried to mash together information and just figure it out but its not as obvious as it would seem, how is there NO videos on this? (you should be the first NUDGE NUDGE) closes I have gotten is just replacing a gesture but it deletes the actual gesture and the animation doesn't even trigger, how to people get it to where they keep the gesture and the animation plays too

[@crypticcryptid9833]

What if you want the object hidden before you grab it? like its not on your model until you grab that certain section. how would i go to do that?

[@weeaboobaby]

Does this work with clothing toggles by any chance? I saw a cute avatar change her clothes by pinching/touching her body and I wanna do that as well TuT

[@Supervigy]

how would you go about this for quest users

[@carlylove3354]

I did it for a hat but the hat blocks my view.. if I move it to the head section it doesnt block my view but I cant take it off with my hand

[@TheFerruccio]

I am having issues getting my animations to work properly for making accessories appear and disappear. I have all the menu items set up, and I have a parameter paramName which is a bool which is toggled. That parameter is referenced in the animation controller, which works for all my other animations. I added a parameter in that controller called paramName and I made a layer in that controller (with a weight of 1) to enable/disable the animation, using transitions to set paramName to true, and paramName to false, interchangeably. However, in VRC, while the menus to enable the prop work just fine, the prop itself does not appear. One issue that might be going on is that my animation is referencing the wrong thing. I recorded animations for enabling and disabling the prop in question. However, I am completely unable to access any information about these animations. If I click one of them, every control is greyed out. I cannot investigate which object property is being referenced. I cannot scrub through the timeline. I cannot use the dropdown menu for animations. I cannot use the play or record button. I'm stumped as to what is going on in this regard, but it has prevented me from debugging one area which potentially has the things I did incorrectly. Does anyone have any idea what is going on?

[@TheMCPanda]

so i did everything but the issue im having is with the GestureRight it doesn't matter if my hand is in a fist or not the object will still snap to my hand and once im away from the constraint it'll snap back to it's default position im trying to make it so it will only snap to my hand when my hand is in a fist

[@ChiaroscuroSeries]

I'm a total noob to Unity so this has been helpful, though I'm still not sure I fully understand it. I bought an avatar the other day that came with a gun that has animations in the package but it isn't actually on the avatar in anyway so I've been wracking my brain in how to get it on her and then how to trigger the gun's firing animation only when the gun is in hand. I hate to ask but could you do a tutorial on that sort of thing sometime? Or is it just a simple extra step or so from what's done here?

[@windwakin]

I'd also love to know how to animate an object only while it's in my hand (for a grabbable sonic screwdriver)

[@violinkitty3764]

Does anyone know how to fix the fingers on a avi whose fingers won’t move at all?

[@hamburger2922]

how would i use this to fire a weapon?

[@Papucho257]

I cant seem to find the vrc contact receiver

[@PremortalVR]

It gets down when Sippbox whips out a shotgun

[@Catheur]

A tutorial i unfoutunately wont get any use out of...still gonna wafch anyway

[@cyberstar251]

can this also be used for buttons on an avatar? to toggle things on the avatar itself? edit: also mine isn't showing the parameter driver script in the options.

[@superninja3338]

Is this the same thing has me holding an item I spawn in with my avatar and someone else can take it? because I have been ,looking for atutorial for it and it always leades me back here

[@killswig]

🤔 Is there a specific reason to use a parameter driver on that second layer and not just having the first animation layer handle it by having the contact and gesture params in its transitions? Or is it just there to also teach people about parameter drivers?

[@xonxt]

Yeah, that's what I was about to say... it can all be done on one single layer, and without using parameter drivers.

[@planetpaddys]

What about if its a gun and then shooting after grabbing it

[@sokol5504]

Having an issue with unity 2022, not sure if anything's changed majorly but GestureRight doesn't seem to work, as regardless of the gesture it still grabs the object. Also it only seems to grab inside the actual ContactReceiver, which means unless I make a massive contact receiver the object won't move to the hand. I've rewatched the video probably 20+ times and even directly compared each step on other avatars I've used this method with but it refuses to work now. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[@mrsherman5012]

dose this work for blendshapes?

[@Yar0m1na]

Hey, so i maanged to do it! perfectly fine! but now my "hat" is in my view point, even tho its not, do u know why?

[@planetpaddys]

can you show how to do this with a gun after you grab it and then shoot it ?

[@TroyDCrafterZ]

Is it possible to make grabbable clothes for research purposes

[@lunaadrivy]

So, I have an issue, I got the thing to move but now I for some reason don’t have an animation option?

[@iknowwhat2do4u9]

for me when i try to animate while in play mode it says animator hasnt been initialized what does that mean? would be nice if anyone could help me

[@planetpaddys]

what about if its a gun and u wanna fire it after u grab it off urself, how do u do that ?

[@PurpleAlike]

I love your tutorials helps a lot, but theres one more interestin topic to make tutorial about, would be great if you would make a tutorial how make gun shouting vfx, particles and how to make it shoot it would be very useful tutorial because theres not much helpful tutorials like yours

[@kasiwirmp5907]

I've got a problem. I can grab my weapon, but it returns back when i move it from the contact receiver's zone. How to fix that?

[@miftawong]

Does the object have to have an armature

[@1987_zombie]

Why I don't have the Contact Component?

[@HumbertoOriginal]

Mine is only working the first time, I have to reset the avatar to grab the prop again

[@killingerk]

I did everything you told me in this video but damn prop won't go back to the hip I started working on this at 5 a.m. now it's 8 a.m.

[@Rxsie18]

same issue here

[@supersince3158]

@@Rxsie18 same issue here

[@MARWHAL]

it wont let me move the object after pressing "Zero"

[@ninakemmerer4210]

when I go to save it it make the prop the same direction as the other constraint not like your tutorial what did you do?

[@liamturner1342]

Has anything significant changed in the year since this tutorial was made? I followed the tutorial pretty exactly and the prop won't stay in my hand, it just flickers there as I walk, and the menu to toggle it doesn't work. 4:30 the exit transitions have no conditions, is this intentional? Edit: answered my own question, yes it's intentional, and they do have exit time but it's set to zero.

[@that_boi_BK]

Not really relating to toggling objects... but is there a way to make it so that when a collider is touched, it causes a full animation to play without needing contact through out the whole time?

[@Cassiepult]

sounds like a job for OnEntry

[@kizzie6401]

how do i do it?

[@shrillr3d293]

Can you do a tutorial for oculus avatars?

[@Luna_Kobold]

follow the exact same instructions except instead of using a parent constraint toggle, make 2 versions of the item and make the grab switch which version of the item is enabled or disabled

[@lunaadrivy]

Mine keeps freezing for some reason when I try to move it

[@monkeydad47]

how would I have it so the facial expression stays on my avatars face once the animation is over? for example, a slow squint that then stays on the the face until I toggle it back off again instead of the animation looping over and over.

[@seven2z964]

Turn loop time off on the animation if you dont want it to loop 🤷‍♂️

[@WarpedKarma6471]

did everything exactly, but it still doesn't work. I can see the contact in game and it trigger when I put my hand on it but it doesn't do anything.

[@garra131491]

doesn't work wont save constants properly donno what im douing wrong but following this exactly so. keeps putting the first one i do in a random place once i do the second