Bones and Rigging

Bones and Rigging


Simple Character Rigging

Available Now

I’ve been trying to think of a suitable subject for this
tutorial, when two of my favorite characters volunteered.

Gummie Guy and Gummie Gal.

Although they both support education, Guy was a bit hesitant when I told him he was going to get “Boned”.
But when I explained we where going to build bones, and “Rig” him so he could move, he was excited.

I’ll show my method for building a bone system while keeping the Transform Tool
in line with all bones. In the end all bones will be at Zero/Zero/Zero to start.

We’ll add the bones to Guy and Gal by giving them a Skeleton Tag, and then Heat Binding
(that’s a fancy word for clicking a button) to glue the mesh to the bones.

I’ll show what tricks I figured out, to fine tune the
movement of joints with Vertex Weight painting.

Along the way I'll use the Pose Tag on the mesh, as well as on the camera.

The Gummies setup, as far as lighting and camera position, is quite specific.
The background is black, and the scene is in the center of a large white disk.

So essentially the sky is black, but if you point the camera slightly down, it looks like a
white background. The black sky is darkening the bottom of their body parts through refraction.

Here's a link to the tutorial and starting files:
Simple Character Rigging

This is a big one, over twenty minutes long an more than 500mb.
Plus three jas files w/materials to start with, so you can rig Gummie Guy,
Gummie Gal and Blueberry Bear. I suggest starting with Gummie
Guy, because it's easier, and the one I used in the tutorial.

Each start file has one character that is rigged, and one that isn't.

Here's a link of interest, thanks to uncle808us. Tips on character animation.

I totally forgot to add a link to Hiroto's Multi Joint script.
It lets you change rigged joint system parameters.

Invaluable if you want to change something like the
joint color after you already have many joints created.

His scripts are free to use, no donation required,
so check and see what else he's got to offer.

Thanks Hiroto.

 

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Thanks for putting that together. I like the "warts and all" approach, meaning, you kept your mistakes in the video!

I wish there was a way to use controllers with IK with the Pose Tag. I know Zoo says to just get rid of the controllers when you're done posing, but I can't imagine working that way.

Bob
 
You can store controller poses — you just stick the pose tag on a folder containing the IK controllers and store THEIR poses instead of the bone hierarchy's.
 
:D The attached Audio File expresses my Anticipation for you upcoming Tut.

My Best
Jeanny
 

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I like the "warts and all" approach, meaning, you kept your mistakes in the video!

That was, in large part, laziness :) — but upon reflection it's a good idea. I think the fact that I go through removing the rig and redoing it is particularly useful (I would have loved to know how to do it when I started out).
 
Would ALL the controllers for the entire rig need to be in that folder?

The Pose Tag seems to ignore whatever doesn't actually have the tag tag on it.

Bob
 

Thanks Pod, it's a pleasure to have this with my tut.
It's one of my favorites, and got me experimenting.

If I had my way I would put links to all the rigging tutorials here.
Then I can create a link to them from the first page for convenience.

 
Special Gummie Wire Report


A revealing look at the Gummies, are they as clean as they look?

On closer examination, their base mesh is super low poly!

 

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Heat Binding Copy and Past


Cheetah never ceases to amaze me. I’m setting up .jas files for the tutorial,
one fully rigged Gummie and one with no bones. In order to allow people
to work with whichever character they want I’m making two files,
one with Guy unrigged, and the other with Gal unrigged.

After I got through with the first one, I knew I could use the same bones for the second.
But I assumed I would have to redo the Vertex Weight painting, which I’d already done
more times than I remember. And even if I could, I figured the mesh would have to be
exactly the same. So I was overjoyed to find I could keep all the fine tuning
I did on Gummie Gal, for Gummie Guy. Thank you Martin

 

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Preparations are going well for the tutorial, with a few brakes to play the
video game, Assassins Creed Unity. I wonder if they used Unity to make that?

Whenever I play that game I always think of Helmut,
while I'm climbing all over Notre Dame Cathedral.

 

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I hope you include some Pose Tag info. That thing is maddening! Maybe I'm trying to do too much or something. Every time I think I got it figured out, I don't!

It's gotten to the point where I'm actually asking it what it wants!

Bob
 

I will Bob, I feel your pain. Although I've been lucky with
the pose tag, many other things have made me crazy. :confused:

I'm not using any IK at all here as it creates more problems than it solves in this case.
I can return to the Bind Pose through the Skeleton Tag at any time, which in my case
is the same as the At Rest pose, without worrying about any Targets.

The first thing I did after I added the Pose Tag to the
mesh is to create a new pose and name it At Rest.

Then I rotate the bones into the jump position,
create a new pose and name it Jump.

Then click on the set button next to the At Rest
pose, to bring the mesh back to the rest position.

Repose into a compressed, ready to jump position,
click create new pose again and name it.

Now I have three poses in the tag, clicking on set next
to any of the tags, moves the mesh into that position.

Then I key-frame rest, compress, jump, compress and rest.

Then I fiddled with the F-curve editor, changing
some tangents to linear and adjusting the timing.

 
Yeah, the problem I'm having is with keying the poses. I never seem to have the tag on the proper joint or something, then my poses don't key properly.

I think the Pose Tag should be made to be applied to the master joint in the chain (the parent to all other joints) and a Key Pose button should be next to each pose that you simply click and key that pose.

Shouldn't make a difference if you're rotating joints or using targets. It's all just poses.

Anyway, that's my 2 cents on that! Looking forward to the tut!

Bob
 
Yeah, the problem I'm having is with keying the poses. I never seem to have the tag on the proper joint or something, then my poses don't key properly.

I think the Pose Tag should be made to be applied to the master joint in the chain (the parent to all other joints) and a Key Pose button should be next to each pose that you simply click and key that pose.

Shouldn't make a difference if you're rotating joints or using targets. It's all just poses.

Anyway, that's my 2 cents on that! Looking forward to the tut!

Bob

On the surface it sounds like a good idea but as you say
it's all just poses and you still have to move the mesh
where you want it, the Pose Tag doesn't do that for you.

Which means after you set a pose, you have to select the mesh and
position it where you want, and while it's still selected key-frame it.

You may just need a checklist. ;)

 

From the Gummie hills there came rumors of
a brave Gummie Bear willing to join the fray.

The Gummie King himself made him Chairbear of the Counsel of Twelve, they say when he
was made he got stuck in the polisher for three cycles, so his skin is extra thick and lustrous.
Presenting... BlueBerry Bear!
I know, I know, the name doesn't sound tough. But I have to figure if he can make it
all the way here, with no bones, then praise the Gummie Gods we’d be proud to have him.

 

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Very Cool ZOO!!

I love the color dispersion/refraction, lighting, shadowing, etc...!
NICE WORK :icon_thumbup: :icon_thumbup: :icon_thumbup:

Being a newbie, I have yet to tinker with character rigging....
There's SO much to learn, it can be overwhelming!

Thank to you, and anyone else who shares there work/techniques
with us who are still learning, we'll get there.... someday.
 
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