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Rigging Arms


Ilidrake

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I've started rigging my models for the Woke Up Dead feature. Normally I would use TSM2 but have become rather frustrated with it. It works good but I find it hard to customize. I started by rigging the legs of my Latimer model and have started with the arms next. And this is where I have stopped LOL. Rigging has never, ever, ever been a strong point for me and I think it's high time I learned a little something more about it. So my question is do you guys have any good starting tuts for rigging a human arm? I want a simple, functioning rig with no bells or whistles. And if it's in a format besides a mov file that would be great because I am totallly cramped on bandwidth right now. Thanks :)

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  • Hash Fellow

Absolutely NO bells and whistles? it's like an IK leg where the knee=elbow and foot=hand

 

A simplest arm needs only 4 bones: upperarm, lowerarm, hand and elbow target ...and two constraints: Kinematic constrain the lower arm to the hand and Aim At constrain the upper arm to the elbow target.

 

Make both constraints with offsets OFF.

 

Note that the hand is NOT a child of the lowerarm. In this simple example the hand and elbow target are children of the torso.

 

Move the hand around in the test Action in the PRJ. The Kin constraint makes the arm follow it. The upperarm's Aim At constraint to the elbow target makes the arm bend in a predictable direction whenever there is slack on the arm. In a scene you frequently adjust the location of the elbow target to get the desired elbow direction.

 

SimpleArm01.prj

 

simplestArm.JPG

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Because when using the tsm2 rig, which ive used for years, its more difficult to add fan bones and smartskin. It is for me anyway. This does what i want and need and thats all i need. Bottom line i can modify and experiment as needed. Once again thanks :)

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  • Hash Fellow

The way to add fan bones and smart skin to TSM2 is to do it before you run Rigger.

 

Before you run Rigger everything you have there is a geometry bone. This is when you attach your CPs to them and add fan bones and do smartskin, not after you run Rigger. You don't need the Rig installed to test out your CP weighting or fan boning or smartskin because none of those things should be attached to anything that Rigger adds, ever.

 

You can test any CP weighting or fan boning or smartskin in the pre-Rigger state by putting the character in an action, selecting a bone and using the rotate manipulator turn the bone through any motion it will need to do.

 

When you are satisfied with your CP weighting or fan boning or smartskin, save your character and run Rigger. Your character is ready to go. If you decided later you want to change something, reload the Pre-Rigger version you saved, make the change and run Rigger on it again. It only takes a minute.

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