[Smartskin constrained rig?]

Good to know.

[Smartskin constrained rig?]

Well, that's pretty weird -- it should work both ways. If you send me your file, I'll take a look and see if I can figure out what the problem is.

[Rest Pose]

Just to clarify: Don't use a pose/action to move the pre-rig bones. You can use a pose/action after you've rigged your character to put the arms into position. However, I'm not sure why changing the pre-rig model itself wouldn't work. If you want to send me your files (morgan@anzovin.com), I'll take a look and see what's going on.

[TSM: neck bone for a neckless creature]

Steve,

 

You shouldn't delete the neck bone, but you don't have to use it. If you make it very short and don't assign any points to it, I think you'll get the effect you're looking for.

[Curved spine?]

In a word: realism. People's spines actually are curved. That said, if you'd rather have a straight spine, you can manually straighten the spine bones in your prerig model. The curve isn't necessary to TSM's functionality.

[Can I use TSM?]

Unusual proportions are generally not a problem, but TSM isn't designed to support multiple shoulders within one arm. "Right shoulder 1," "2," etc. may appear to follow a general TSM naming convention, but the shoulder isn't one of the areas where that convention applies. You might try repositioning the shoulder to about where your shoulder3 is, and seeing if that's enough. If it isn't, and you really need that many joints, then you'll probably want to use a tail instead.

 

For the lower limbs, my question would be whether or not the character is going to walk on them. If not, then you really don't need legs, per se -- you might consider switching them to arms, or again, tails. The TSM legs are IK based, and that's probably not what you want if this is actually a swimming character.

 

Overall, whether this will work with TSM depends on what you're going for. But as long as you don't save over your pre-rigged version, there's no reason you can't just run it through TSM and see how it looks. If it's not what you wanted, you can always go back, change your pre-rigged model, and try again.

 

Hope that helps, but if you have any more questions, feel free to ask.

-Morgan

[Anzovin Links & Contact Info]

Links:

 

Anzovin Studio -- our main site.

The Setup Machine -- automated character rigging.

WeightMover -- weight transfer utility.

Anzovin Studio Store -- A:M training materials and other products.

 

 

Contact Info:

 

steve@anzovin.com -- for questions or problems purchasing any Anzovin products, including serial numbers for TSM and WM.

Please note: If you order online, your serial number will be e-mailed to you. You should get it within 24 hours... but it isn't instantaneous. Don't panic.

 

morgan@anzovin.com -- for bug reports and tech support for TSM and WM.

That's me. I'll be happy to answer any questions posted here, but if you need to send me problem file(s), or would just prefer to contact me directly, feel free to use the address above.