Thom's rig - trying to understand

[Xcalibur]

Hi all,

 

First post here. I am in the proccess of rigging my own model and I am trying to learn how to rig the knees and elbows. I am trying to teach myself by looking at the Thom skeleton for hints at how this is done and I got quite a surprise when seeing how many bones were allocated to the legs.

 

Question1

For knee orientation there is a hierarchy of Leg Hinge/Knee/Thigh orient, but I have not figure out how these manage to influence the Thigh and calf bones...i.e. what constraints are applied? If you know how this is done please give me a run through

 

Question2

There are several "balance" nulls and bones...what benefits are there from having these?

 

Cheers

[luckbat]

Xcalibur, Thom's skeleton is a few years out of date, and a lot has changed in rigging techniques since then. For one thing, "balance" systems have largely fallen by the wayside. Hash's new standard Thom rig is called Squetchy, and luckily there's an incredibly detailed 5-chapter video tutorial showing how it all fits together. Have a look:

 

Squetch Rig Installation, part I

[Xcalibur]

Xcalibur, Thom's skeleton is a few years out of date, and a lot has changed in rigging techniques since then. For one thing, "balance" systems have largely fallen by the wayside. Hash's new standard Thom rig is called Squetchy, and luckily there's an incredibly detailed 5-chapter video tutorial showing how it all fits together. Have a look:

 

Squetch Rig Installation, part I

 

I see the light!

 

Thanks luckbat

[Xcalibur]

Actually the light didn't come .........I have gone through the 5 videos for squetch...and although I can see the rig used is COMPLETELY different it does not help teaching me how to get started. Is there a tutorial that goes through the basics of setting up constraints...what constraints are good for something and which ones are good for something else?

 

The model I made is of a robot character so it is pretty basic and has restricted motion in its joints and dont have to worry about CP weights as it is not a continuous mesh.

 

Can't wait for your replies

[itsjustme]

The Squetch Rig installation tutorials is for showing how to install the Squetch Rig, so, it is an attempt to get people familiar with the ins and outs of that....I still have a couple of installments to finish on it when I get some breathing room.

 

For basic constraints, I have a face rigging tutorial that covers quite a few constraints and give you a sort of workflow when rigging...it's located here.

 

For legs, I recommend this tutorial...it's the same setup that is in the Squetch Rig (slightly modified).

 

For showing how squetch can be set up, I go into it in this tutorial.

 

Patason Brooks has some good tutorials located here.

 

Matthew Krick has some good tutorials located here.

 

Jeff Lew has some models you can tear apart and learn from here.

 

The Squetch Rig download includes "Squetchy Thom" which is a model you can tear apart and learn from.

 

There are some great "Tech Talks" located here...several of them would apply to rigging.

 

Anzovin Studio sells some rigging tutorials as well as "The Setup Machine".

 

Mike Fitzgerald sells a rigging tutorial.

 

David Rogers sells a book that has a rigging section.

 

 

Hope that is helpful.

[Stuart Rogers]

For knee orientation there is a hierarchy of Leg Hinge/Knee/Thigh orient, but I have not figure out how these manage to influence the Thigh and calf bones...i.e. what constraints are applied? If you know how this is done please give me a run through

The thigh bone and calf bone form an Inverse Kinematic chain so that when you move the foot around, the thigh's orientation is driven by the calf. The Hinge bone is there to keep the Knee Pointer half way between the top of the thigh and the bottom of the calf (i.e. in line with the knee). The Knee Pointer is there to direct the knee. As there are two possible solutions for the inverse kinematics (one with the knee pointing forwards, the other with it pointing backwards relative to the Knee Pointer) the Thigh Orient is there to coax the IK solution to give the result you want (the thigh pointing in the same direction as the knee pointer). I think it would be a worthwhile exercise to try to understand this structure before you move on to more complex rigs.

There are several "balance" nulls and bones...what benefits are there from having these?

As Luckbat says, these have fallen out of favour these days - I personally find them very annoying, and never use them.

[Xcalibur]

Thanks guys I have a lot of material to go through needs digesting.

By the way do you guys recommend a book that would help starters like myself. I noticed a book "animation master 2002 complete guide by david rogers" did you guys find it useful?...oops just noticed ITSJUSTME has recommended a similar book ....

[itsjustme]

Thanks guys I have a lot of material to go through needs digesting.

By the way do you guys recommend a book that would help starters like myself. I noticed a book "animation master 2002 complete guide by david rogers" did you guys find it useful?...oops just noticed ITSJUSTME has recommended a similar book ....

 

The book I recommended is the updated version of the 2002 book...it was released a month or two ago, so it is as up to date as you can get at this time.