very newbie question on binding...

[sdyer23]

Cinobyte,

Welcome to the world of rigging! :-)

First of all, I'm going to tell you that there is no "right" way to rig a character. When you rig a character, you rig it for the animation. You add features to your rig to determine and help your character perform the actions needed in an animation (jumping, running, stretchy limbs etc.)

While there are some "standard tools" that most rigs should have, I would definately start with simple setups and then move up from there. At this point I think it would be better to ask you on what specific parts you'd like to learn about rigging in general? Of course most of these forums here will have plenty of information on rigging specific body parts etc. and other sites you can visit. THe best suggestion I can give is for you to look at other rigs that are made, download them if available, and play with them. see what makes them work and so on.

As for you hand question. You can bind a character in pieces if you want. As long as the character was modeled in such a way so that when the arm moves it doesn't show a gap in its movement. Combining them works as well, but with a Combine, you'll have to weight a bigger mesh than you would if you were to weigh the two separate meshes.

I hope this helps a little, I wish you the best of luck in your endeavors.

-Tux

[Cinobyte76]

Tux,
Thanks so much for the response! It was help. I have a few rigs i want to pull apart and disect. I guess, the question that i have overall, is what is normal work flow when creating a rig? For instance,
step 1 - examine model
step 2 - build joints
step 3 - orient joints
step 4 -
etc... It seems that everyone approaches it differently, but I guess I was just wondering if there is a basic step by step process to follow that would eliminate the majority of easy mistakes. I've got a few dvds and books that i've been trying to follow as well as tutorials i found online, so I'm trying to take bits and pieces from each of them.

Thanks so much!!
C

[eek]

Bones > setup < skin > puppets

So you have a mesh in the bind pose, essentially a neutral relaxed state. Then you add bones, then the setup i.e the constraints/ik/expressions then the puppets the animators will use. Skin takes place at between any of these stages, as the rig may need to change to accomodate dynamics, skin,muscle, stretch etc

[sdyer23]

Cinobyte,

Well if you want a general workflow. I would take the following:

1. Examine the needs of the model for the animation.
2. Examine the type of rig you will need to accomplish your goals for the character ( is it a biped, quadraped, so we need strtchy limbs etc.)
3. Setup the rig for the model.
4. Make sure the model is in a "T-Pose" or neutral pose.
5. Skin the joints to the surrounding geometry.
6. Test the model for deformations.
7. Rinse lather, and repeat 5 and 6y until you get the skin acting the way you want.

Now mind you this is a real general workflow that I follow when rigging models. Of course there are subsets and more advanced steps depending on the complexity of the rig you want/need for the animation. But I can't stress enough about planning your rigs ahead of time. Literally, sit down and list off all the actions your character will be doing throughout an animation. THen with that in mind, you can begin rigging.

I hope this brings some more detail into what you need. Let me know if I can be of more help. And as always, good luck!

-Tux

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