Installing Lite Rig in dragon

[Roger]

So I'm installing Lite Rig right now and I think I have the placement just about right for the arm and the leg. The hip and torso bones I think are going to need some work. I will also need to put in additional bones for the neck, I think.

 

Anyone out there have experience w/ Lite rig want to take a look at what I have so far?

[robcat2075]

Should the arm start so far into the body? It may be difficult to drop the arm down from there.

 

And should the leg start so high?

 

Try it, see what you get, revise, I guess.

[NancyGormezano]

I'm thinking the legs are ok, but the Hip null (as well as lower hip bone) are probably too high. It depends on where you want his torso to bend from. You probably want the torso bone to extend higher, (and the lower spine) and I believe you will probably want the neck bone as well. You will have to decide where/how you want him to bend (with neck, torso, lower spine), as to where you put the origin of those bones.

 

Also I'm not sure if it matters, but I suspect you will want your model and it's geometry bones to line up closer with the model bone, ie at 0,0,0 for less problems installing the controls properly.

 

I've uploaded a shot of my lion model to give you an example of geometry bone placement. A dragon will have different placement, depending on how you want the neck, head to operate. I'm guessing you might want to make the head bone vertical as well, even though the geometry goes horizontallyish. It might make a difference in how the controls work. And so I've uploaded a very confusing marked up copy of your side view to illustrate the confusion, and make it even more confusing as to placement options available for neck, torso, lower spine.

[Roger]

I may need to experiment with both Lite Rig and TSM2, my char has such a long neck I'm probably going to have to add some bones. The default TSM2 rig has quite a few spine bones, some of which could be converted to neck bones.

 

The only thing that confuses me about TSM2 is the 4 arm bones instead of two, unless one in the upper and then the lower arm is meant to be hidden.

 

I wish I had a better grasp on rigging, it is all very trial-and-error for me. I hope once I finally get round to animating I have an easier time of things. I almost would have been better off farming it out to someone, at least then I could have gotten started animating sooner.