XSI's prebuilt rigs

[T4D]

XSi rigs are standard character animations rigs
I make Rigging tools for Lightwave and the standard rig in XSI is pretty much the same as mine ones for Lightwave but with different key objects & ways to key but the ik and animation centers are the same

why do you think they not up to the job ?
I started animating with them and very happy with what i've seen, I haven't had to change any thing really but i have added afew things ( abit stuck on my Old Lightwave ways of working )

the rig guide is a guide only i see no need to have custom names on the guide rig
if you want to rename anything it would be best to rename the Proper rig the Guide makes
not the other way round. :shrug:

[Sil3]

The softimage folks like to bill the rigs that come with xsi as production proven. Does anyone know where these rigs have actually been used? Does anyone here have experience with them and can you recommend any particular tips when working with them? Are they worth using or should I build my own?

We used them on 90% of the stuff we do where i work, mainly because my Boss was not a rigger and the Rigs are actually very good. Sometimes u may need some more controls and those are easy to add.

We can build or own, but most of the times for what we do (cartoon animation for commercials) the default rig is sufficient, even though im not a fan of pre built rigs, this one is actually very cool indeed.

[madheavy]

Hey, I just downloaded the 30-day trial of XSI Foundation. I wanted to try out some of the prebuilt skeleton, rig , and models that it comes with.

I followed the instructions in the manual I downloaded from the site in on how 'easy' it is to do.
Is there a site that will walk me through opening a new scene adding skeleton (premade) model (premade) and rig (prebuilt) to my scene, then enveloping the model to the skeletonand then constraining (I hope I'm using the right word) the rig to the skeleton?

Although I follow the instructions on the html manual I downloaded...but not working for me.

I know I should probably read the entire manual, but my time is limited and so is the 30 day trial.
If someone knows how this is done or where it is shown in detail on the web, please let me know. THanks

[tuna]

I use the pre-made rigs as a base for most my characters, then normally spend a little while fixing up things like the fingers, adding shadowbone things to the rig, adding my own transformation setups, jaw bones, reparenting some of the bones, adding DisplayInfo controls etc and anything else that might need changing.

It's a good place to start from, and makes building simple rigs much quicker. I'm using foundation, so the rigs are only simple to begin with anyway.


[edit] for the above poster: get: primative > model > biped - guide.
get: primative > model > rig from biped guide > set options > ok

its that simple

[wmendez]

If I recall correctly prebuilt rigs were the creation of Michael Isner who designed the rigs based on the feedback he got from TD's and customers in the industry. Some tips that have not been mentioned yet is if you select any bone and hit F3 you get a Synoptic View, also in the Explorer there is an Anotation entiltled Rig_Readme which gives you some tips on using the rig.

Also see the following link It's Siggs ago

Isner rigging Seminar (http://www.softimage.com/education/Xsi/SelfPacedLearning/Tutorials/default.htm?sorttheme=437)

[Voldron]

ahhh blaring audio ahhhh. But hey it was 2002 what can you do. Anyways I use the pre-built rigs also 90% of the time and just add on top when needed, why re-invent the wheel when you don't have to? The only time you would really build your own rig is if you were doing something other than a human rig or something close to that. For instance a bear or something. Overall I am really happy with the rigs.(Hate valve for putting a limit on their exporter, of course I have a work around)

[DrAdamDinosaur]

whats the limit on valve's exporter?

[mr Bob]

I add some Nulls into my hierarchy , like a position null , a Position offset , a scale , a scale offset and Pose .... Its certainly a good start off rig to learn more from

B

[mattmos]

The more I learn about rigging the closer I come to the XSI inbuilt rig. Its really pretty good, especially the keying/selecting options in the synoptic. I prefer a different way of animating the feet, using custom displayinfo parameter sets, but overall it works fine. The only problem is if you have a problem with the rig and you haven't built it trouble-shooting can be a bit tiresome.

[madheavy]

Yeah. I created a short little animation (4 seconds or so) using the built-in rig from XSI 4.2. Although easy to animate with, the deformations of areas such as shoulders and hips was really awful. I even spent time painting weights to the best of my ability (insert joke here) and created some shape animations to fix them as well. End the end though, I think there must be a better way to rig...
Did anyone else check out this cool thread...http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=261270
I would like to attempt to create something like this in XSI. Do you think it can be done?

[tuna]

Hey, an old thread. Just though I'd update my opinion on the matter. I no longer use the XSI rigs because I've found them to be computationally slow with no real alternative to speed them up, and no IK/FK switching on most areas of the body, so I make my own.

It's also nice to include broken hierarchys where needed, and a proper set of controls that are more clear and easier to select. Squash and stretch is also something that cant be added easily to the exsisting rigs.

[3DQUAKERS]

Stay tuned guys because within a few days, we will be releasing the demo to our upcoming RiggingPro training series for XSI.
The final rig will have features not available in the built-in rigs, like FK/IK blending, Stretchy limbs, custom Spine setup and many more. If interested, you can check out our 3DS MAX demo to have an idea http://3dquakers1.com/webroot5/download.php?det=27

[tredeger]

Stay tuned guys because within a few days, we will be releasing the demo to our upcoming RiggingPro training series for XSI.
The final rig will have features not available in the built-in rigs, like FK/IK blending, Stretchy limbs, custom Spine setup and many more. If interested, you can check out our 3DS MAX demo to have an idea http://3dquakers1.com/webroot5/download.php?det=27



I tried to look at the demo .mov but it causes a buffer overrun that kills qt.

[3DQUAKERS]

Try installing the latest quicktime. It should be viewed in version 7 and above.

[tredeger]

i've got the latest qt.

[3DQUAKERS]

I would try redownloading the demo using a download manager. Maybe you had a broken download.

[tredeger]

tried that. Sorry, no joy. all my other .mov files are fine too. Have you checked the file yourself? Are you sure it's just me? This seems pretty interesting so I'd love to check it out.

cheers

[3DQUAKERS]

A lot of other people downloaded and viewd the file with no problem.
Can anybody else try and see if it works?

[SheepFactory]

I have the latest quicktime , still get that error.

[3DQUAKERS]

This might be due to the fact that the file was originally in flash swf format, then saved as a Quicktime. So you might want to install the flash 8 player. It might solve the problem.
If it's too much of a hassle, then wait till the XSI demo in a few days, I will make it a normal Quicktime.

[madheavy]

CHARBEL that sounds awesome. I was able to download your file by clicking on the CLICK HERE button. It saves as 'downloadget.php' file, but it opens with winrar and inside it is your rigging pro demo.

I got your character animation video for XSI and I'm loving it. I'd buy if it is as you claim. However the only thing I don't like is that I cannot export your videos to my PSP for viewing on my train ride to work.

I think the default rigs in XSI make you require too much shoulder and thigh/hip weighting and (endomorphing?) to achieve good deformations.

Your video looks awesome! If you can get this working in XSI I would by it.
One suggestion: ADD the rig to a human model and take it to some extremes...I'd love to see how the shoulders twist/rotation solution you created works on a model.


CHAR I will try to put up a link to your video soon...

[CoolCalb]

jumping into the thread,

I use XSI's rigs in 95% of my animations...
Sometimes I need to add some extra bones.. but most of the time, they are great.

As a character animator, I dont like too many controls, it kills the animating workflow
and line of thinking..

there's one bug with XSI's rigs, that's killing me: when using roll divisions, if you turn on one or
two roll's when creating the rig-from-guide, and not all 3, or none of them,
you then cannot use "reasign localy", when setting weights anymore... it just does not work!

you can check out my page, most animation there, are done using the built in rigs.

[SheepFactory]

And too many controls is exactly what you have with the XSI rigs. They are certainly animateable but hardly the best. I would elaborate but this topic has been discussed to death and jaco made a pretty great post already about the limitations of the prebuilt rig that comes with xsi , you can read it here:

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=315739&page=3&pp=15&highlight=prebuilt+rig

[Sil3]

jumping into the thread,



there's one bug with XSI's rigs, that's killing me: when using roll divisions, if you turn on one or
two roll's when creating the rig-from-guide, and not all 3, or none of them,
you then cannot use "reasign localy", when setting weights anymore... it just does not work!

you can check out my page, most animation there, are done using the built in rigs.

That´s a known BUG that have been reported at least more than a year now...i was surprised to see it appear in XSI5.....


Theres a workaround for it though:

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showpost.php?p=1945247&postcount=9

Perhaps that post should be made a sticky...from time to time this issue arises, until Softimage decides to take their time and fix it, it´s the only way to solve it.

[CoolCalb]

thanks SheepFactory,

they are not the best, thats for sure, but I manage to get a lot out of them, under extremely
tight deadlines, when I absolutly do not have time to build my own rigs.
I think this is exactly what they are there for.

I do not find them too complicated, or have too many controls,
I use what I need (for instance, I do not use the sliders for the fingers, I animate the finger
straight on the bones, using rotations.)

Wish every project we had time to build a custom rig... but usually there's not :)

thanks a lot Sil3 !!! I never knew there was a workaround... no I know!

[Sil3]

thanks a lot Sil3 !!! I never knew there was a workaround... no I know!

Dont thank me, thank Rui Feliciano, he was the one that "Solved it" ;) I only spread the word hehehe

[madheavy]

jumping into the thread,

I use XSI's rigs in 95% of my animations...
Sometimes I need to add some extra bones.. but most of the time, they are great.



I looked at some of your animations, they look fantastic. Especially the one with the little people walking exploring the big city.

For animations like the little people one, the XSI Rigs are fine. But for jumping twisting or action sequences I find them to be somewhat limiting. It can be done, but gimbal locking and other things make it a little complicated.

[CoolCalb]

thanks madheavy :)

you might be right... I dont get to do much phisical or action shots... mostly acting.
anyway it feels like they (XSI's rigs) are getting better every second release or so .. hehe..

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