Auto-Assign

[Masna]

In the A.M. manual it talks about auto-assign. How do you use auto-assign and what toolbar is it on.

[itsjustme]

In the A.M. manual it talks about auto-assign. How do you use auto-assign and what toolbar is it on.

 

Are you talking about "Auto Assign Bones"? If so, in Bones mode, right mouse-click over the model window...it's in the menu that pops up.

 

Hope that helps.

[Masna]

Thanks! that helps a lot!

[the_black_mage]

but its really better to assign them your self...unless you have a really dense model....

[Caroline]

I would suggest doing Exercise 13 of TAOAM - Show some backbone - I think you do auto-assign in there, and you place a full rig into a character.

 

The video is here:

http://www.hash.com/2007web/vm.htm

[John Bigboote]

I'll usually employ auto-assign and let it 'do it's thing'... and then I'll go thru and fix it's oooopsies. It's great for a one-clik and you are 40-60% of the way done tool.

[itsjustme]

I use "Auto Assign Bones" to initially rough-in the weighting...just so I can quickly see if I missed something when I'm setting up a rig. It works fine for that.

[mtpeak2]

I don't use it.

[zandoriastudios]

I don't use it either.... The problem is that you have bones in your rig that aren't ones you want to have geometry assigned to, but this feature assigns influence based on proximity. This is fine if you are using something like the setup machine, which only has the geometry bones at first...

 

I'm currently using a rig called "2007biped_rig.mdl" Which already has fanbones at the shoulders and hips (as described on my CP Weights/smartskin CD), eye target,etc. all of the relationships setup and ready. I just Import>Model when I'm ready for the rigging, and the skeleton and relationships all come in [this is simpler than the "Show some backbone" tutorial]. Then I switch to bones mode and scale and move hierarchies to fit the model (assigning as I go). I open an action where I weight and smartskin as I test out the movement until I'm happy with it.

[largento]

I can say without hesitation that rigging was the most intimidating element of creating a character for me. I just couldn't wrap my head around it at the beginning and it's the only part of this process that almost made me throw up my hands and give up.

 

Luckily, I received some encouragement from David Simmons and went back and tried to find out what the parts of the process were that I wasn't getting. I found my answers watching his Squetch tutorial videos and then got to see the real implementation and art of CP weighting in Will's CD.

 

As surprising as it may sound to the veterans, I had encountered nothing early on that told me there was a way to manually weight the CPs. I was completely baffled. Once I found out how it was done and what the process was actually about, the mystery went away and it finally made sense to me.

 

I wouldn't say it's my favorite part, but I'm certainly not intimidated by it anymore and there's actually a level of enjoyment I get out of the process of weighting the CPs and then watching the results of the changes in the action window. And it's another one of those things that I notice that I improve at every time I do it. I'm a loooong ways away from being really good at it, but I can see the path to getting there.

[itsjustme]

I don't use it either.... The problem is that you have bones in your rig that aren't ones you want to have geometry assigned to, but this feature assigns influence based on proximity. This is fine if you are using something like the setup machine, which only has the geometry bones at first...

 

If you put "geom" in the name of your geometry bones, you could run the InstallRig plugin and it would make only those bones visible in Bones mode. The plugin wouldn't do anything else unless you set up "INSTALL" bones, so nothing else would be affected. It might not speed up your workflow by much, but every little bit helps.

[mtpeak2]

Hey Will, where is this 2007 biped rig? Is it one you created? Is it downloadable somewhere? Curious minds want to know.

[zandoriastudios]

that is a modified version of the 2001 rig that I've been working on for a client project.

[Masna]

Thanks for the help everyone, it's alot to get my mind around but i'm sure that i'll figure it out.

[KingVidiot]

I'm guessing the InstallRig is part of a newer version of AM right? I've been away for a while.

 

If I use any skeleton (setup machine, InstallRig) other than the standard included rig then I won't be able to use the included actions. That isn't good since I'm lazy and I like to use the actions as starting points.

 

 

What's this Taylor skelton I read about in TAOAM?

 

Is there a good tutorial that explains the intricacies of the Thom model skeleton and the hidden bones, etc?

[robcat2075]

I'm guessing the InstallRig is part of a newer version of AM right? I've been away for a while.

 

Welcome back! InstallRig automates somethings for bones that have been set up with a particular naming convention. Hopefully a guru on it will drop in.

 

 

If I use any skeleton (setup machine, InstallRig) other than the standard included rig then I won't be able to use the included actions.

True, but I never felt those were so numerous that sticking with the AM2001 rig was advantageous. If you want to animate, other rigs will be useful.

 

What's this Taylor skelton I read about in TAOAM?

which tut?

 

Is there a good tutorial that explains the intricacies of the Thom model skeleton and the hidden bones, etc?

"Show some Backbone" in TAoA:M shows how to install it.

[itsjustme]

I'm guessing the InstallRig is part of a newer version of AM right? I've been away for a while.

 

If I use any skeleton (setup machine, InstallRig) other than the standard included rig then I won't be able to use the included actions. That isn't good since I'm lazy and I like to use the actions as starting points.

 

 

What's this Taylor skelton I read about in TAOAM?

 

Is there a good tutorial that explains the intricacies of the Thom model skeleton and the hidden bones, etc?

 

The InstallRig plugin is explained in the video tutorial I put together a few years ago...here (it explains how to build a rig that uses the plugin and what it will do). The 2008 Rig and the Squetch Rig both use this plugin for the installation process. While the plugin is included in the current version, you will have to add it for v13...it is available in these forums.

 

You can still use the 2001 Rig, but there are several rigs that you would probably find easier to animate with. The LiteRig, 2008 Rig, TSM2 or the Squetch Rig (all free and available on these forums) would be the standard options, but you could also "roll your own".

 

I haven't heard of a "Taylor" skeleton...so, I can't help with that.

 

The "Show Some Backbone" tutorial explains how to install the 2001 (Thom) Rig.

 

Hope that helps.

[Vertexspline]

thanks David for all that----So very helpful. Not just up to rigging things yet at least not seriously until I work more on modeling but post like these are so helpful.

 

Rich

[mouseman]

I'm guessing the InstallRig is part of a newer version of AM right? I've been away for a while. [...]

 

The InstallRig plugin is explained in the video tutorial I put together a few years ago...here (it explains how to build a rig that uses the plugin and what it will do). The 2008 Rig and the Squetch Rig both use this plugin for the installation process. While the plugin is included in the current version, you will have to add it for v13...it is available in these forums.

I added some of this information to the InstallRigPlugin wiki page.