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mtpeak2

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I'd like to know what everyone would like in a rig?

 

FK setup, IK setup, basic fan bones, heel setup, torso and head control bones or all of the above?

 

I'm working on a rig right now that I plan on adding all of them, most of it is in place. Is there anything that you can add to the list? I'm planning on putting it up on the forum for testing this weekend. I would appreciate some suggestions.

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All of the above sounds good especially the heel setup. I just figured out how to build a rig with the heel setup but I really hate rigging... so I guess the next obvious feature would be to make it scaleable like the 2001 rig --unless you were going to do that anyway.

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Well I'm not proficient enough to describe it in 'proper' terms but here's what I like:

 

Ability to move arms with a null at the hand

Ability to control orientation/position of the elbow

Ability to control shoulder back/forward up/down

Ability to lock the feet to the ground

Ability to move the body with feet locked down

Ability to Stretch and squash the body with the feet locked down

Ability to control foot position via nulls at the feet

Ability to control orientation/position of the knees

Ability to control fingers individually as well as a single bone control to close finger

Ability to constrain the hands to another object so that moving the other object will move the character rig without pulling it apart

 

Cheers

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I like the type that I can download, rigs itself and that assigns itself to the correct CP's. Havn't found one yet, but I'm still looking.

That would be the ideal ;-). TSM2 does a lot of that. It can't assign the correct CPs automatically--there's no way to do that because model geometries vary infinitely--but it is downloadable and it does basically rig itself. We already have rig scripting--it just has to be exposed to the user and documented, which we will get to soon--and then you can use TSM2 to install your own rigs. BTW, we give away the rig itself; feel free to reverse engineer it.

 

Steve

Anzovin Studio

http://www.anzovin.com

Free rigs: http://lib1.store.vip.sc5.yahoo.com/lib/ra.../characters.zip

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I agree with all of what David said - even though I am new with this. I'm using Anzovin's TSM2 right now and it is a great rig - don't get me wrong - but I wish for a few things - like the feet stuff for instance. And don't forget an eye target - simple but something you should have.

 

One thing I don't see - and maybe this doesn't fall under basic stuff - but a hand clench/unclench pose. It's a lot of work do to it one finger at a time.

 

I love Jeff Lew's basic rig and how he uses it in his tutorial too.

 

One thing I will say - for getting up and running quickly and animating - you can't beat TSM2 for a beginner.

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Simple, easy blending between FK and IK is key. IMHO, the best way it was ever implemented was in the late lamented Raf v3 rig, where you could just pull the hand bone off the arm and it would automatically become an IK goal. However, I'm one of the few people for whom that actually 'clicked,' :) and so it was changed to pose-slider blending in the later Setup Machine rigs. Which is still better than the on-off switch of the Hash rig.

 

However, lately I've been using the Hash rig a lot, and have come to admire its simplicity. A little really does go a long way...

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Steve Anzovin, does TSM have shoulder movement when you stretch the arm by pulling on the hand or does that movement stop at the bicep?

If you mean arm squash and stretch, there are s&q sliders for every limb and spine in the TSM2 rig. Stretch does affect both the forearm and upper arm, but the shoulder is not affected. If you are referring to simple IK movement, the shoulder is isolated from the lower arm and will not move if you pull on the hand. You can move the shoulder by moving the upper arm control, however. If you are thinking about detailed deformation of the shoulder, a perennial concern for riggers, that is achieved through weighting, intermediates/cogs, and smartskin.

 

Steve

Anzovin Studio

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Well, imagine sitting in a chair and reaching for something in front of you, there is some shoulder (as well as some torso) movement that happens depending on the distance of the object you're trying to reach. I don't think smartskin, weighting or intermediates will do the trick in this case.

 

The 2001 rig has shoulder bones but you have to move them independently of the arm in question if you're reaching for something... (doesn't look natural)

 

I don't know, I may just stick with slightly rotating the upper torso a bit when my character reaches for something. Thanks for your help..

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... imagine sitting in a chair and reaching for something in front of you, there is some shoulder (as well as some torso) movement that happens

You can get the shoulder action you are mentioning pretty easily in your basic bone/constraint setup. It even works with TSM if you use that rig.

 

I'm going from memory so...

 

Add a bone named Shoulder Pointer and place it right where your shoulder bone is. Make it a child of the same bone your shoulder bone is and assign your shoulder geometry to it. Make your shoulder hinge joint a child of the shoulder pointer. Now add a bone named Shoulder Target pointing straight out along the Z axis and place it near the elbow.

 

In your constraints pose, constrain the Shoulder Target to "Translate to" the elbow bone and constrain the Shoulder Pointer to "Aim At" the Shoulder Target with 30% or 40% enforcement. Then spend some time weighting the CPs around the shoulder between the the Upper Arm, the Shoulder Hinge, and the Shoulder Pointer. It you want to get really fancy, you can follow Fitz's cogs tutorial. Cogs work great but its about 14 bones, two nulls, and a bunch of constraints per shoulder more complicated then my humble setup.

 

Maybe you wouldn't even need the Shoulder Target bone. Maybe you could just constrain the Shoulder Pointer to "Aim At" the lower arm (forearm) bone instead. Hmmm, I'll have to try that.

 

You still have to rotate the torso manually though.

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Simple, easy blending between FK and IK is key. IMHO, the best way it was ever implemented was in the late lamented Raf v3 rig, where you could just pull the hand bone off the arm and it would automatically become an IK goal. However, I'm one of the few people for whom that actually 'clicked,' :) and so it was changed to pose-slider blending in the later Setup Machine rigs. Which is still better than the on-off switch of the Hash rig.

 

However, lately I've been using the Hash rig a lot, and have come to admire its simplicity. A little really does go a long way...

Ah, but we never did remove it. While we haven't made it as obvious in the TSM rig (because that isn't how most people like to do it) you can still pull the hand off and use it in exactly the same way. You just need to hit the n key to move so you can move the hand control despite the fact that it's chained to the arm bones.

 

--Raf

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  • Hash Fellow
but I wish for a few things - like the feet stuff for instance. And don't forget an eye target - simple but something you should have.
What feet stuff is missing?

 

One thing I don't see - and maybe this doesn't fall under basic stuff - but a hand clench/unclench pose. It's a lot of work do to it one finger at a time.
you can add these to your rigged model after TSM. Make a new pose and use it to control settings of TSM's individual finger controls. You only have to do it once and then resave your character.
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  • 2 weeks later...

although i´m not terribly experienced w/ rigs i´ve used both the 2k1 rig and a handbuilt one that i gave up on (as per A:M 2002 a complete guide). I really like the 2k1 rig´s foot controls but i REALLY like david rogers´s IK/FK switching mechanism (it´s pose slider controlled like what you say TSM 2 has). I hadn´t seen it before, it´s in the chapter 11 folder and it´s called washer v19. When you switch between IK and FK the arms remain relatively unaltered. However what i find odd is that the IK arms controls are never at 100% only at 50%, even though that is considered by the slider to be 100% IK.

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