Opinions on Auto-Rigger plugin?

[Ulven]

I'm curious too :)

[StOuen]

I think it does what it says on the tin. It makes for a good base rig. And you can be up and animating in 10 mins!

[Leonardo Vega]

No comments on the actual rig? Is it too simply or do you feel they could have improved on a certain aspect of it?

Do you feel you animate more naturally using this rig?

It seems like a great tool...

[StOuen]

Do you feel you animate more naturally using this rig?

It seems like a great tool...

Have you checked out the videos? There is a image and explanantion of the controls as well: http://www.usefulslug.com/downloads.html

[Leonardo Vega]

I viewed it many times :) It does appear nicer to animate with... but just wanted some hands-on info. I'm the kinda guy who needs to try a demo version first. I know that's not possible with this plugin, so I was hoping to get user inputs.

Also sometimes plugins or even main apps can be a little buggy.

[StOuen]

Ulven has already supplied an update so he is hot on any bugs that surface. As for animating, that is such as personal thing that all I can say is it is a good starting rig and saves a lot of time. Really, you cant go wrong at $100. Just buy it dude!

[Tama]

I don't own the Auto-Rigger plugin however it does look like it's worth the price if you need
help with rigging for the pMG product.

If you're looking for freebies and you also use Lightwave you might want to check out this thread regarding a free autorigging plugin for Lightwave if you haven't seen it already,

Auto-Rigging plugin (http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=5&t=560248)

Of course the rub is that the docs are primarily in Japanese but there are plenty of little videos and a few "translated to english" pages that can help you get started...

[Leonardo Vega]

$100 is not chump change for me :) I'm a hobbyist with the goal of making a small cartoon film.

[Ulven]

Well, I've also animated with the rig a bit myself, and the animation controls are very intuitive as far as I'm concerned. They are a bit different to what you find in a classic rig (you drag the end of the bone rather than select a bone, then select you axis of rotation, then rotate) I really enjoy this way of working and that's why it's in there. You can still use the editsphere if you prefer. It's tested quite well so there's no bugs known to us at the moment and it's entirely stable. (I haven't made it crash yet, even when you delete whole limbs before running the autorigger action.)

[Leonardo Vega]

Looks quite nice. I once made a basic rig with amartures, where it did something similar. You click and drag a "control point" and the bone rotates depending on the mouse button used. I definitely prefer that way of animating.

To be honest, I'm also waiting for Messiah 3.0 to finally come out. Messiah 2.4 has been out for a long time and I know 3.0 has to be out soon.

[peksi]

Well I think this rig is better, the armatures are taken a bit further with Suricates excellent bonecontroller plugin. Just drag where you want, no need to use different buttons for every channel.

[lillmagnus]

We animated a 30 second comercial using a slightly modified autorig and had no problems with it, actually it saved us a lot of time and money. But there are some things that are lacking from this auto-rig that I absolutely need when I do character work, like stretchy head and spine and some other functions. And I really would like the option to animate from the base of a bone than from the tip. But it's highly recommended and it seems (as far as I have used tried) you can build on what it does to make it do what you want.

/lillmagnus

[Ulven]

Great to hear lillmagnus. Yep the autorigger is fully expandable by the user.
You can animate from the base of the bone by hiding the armatures and unlocking the bones.

For stretchy rigs and other custom rig tools like instant IK/FK switching you can just email us and we'll give you a quote for rigging the characters for you (it's part of what we do afterall). The autorigger is intended to make a more run of the mill, standardised rig at a very low cost in time and money.

[Julez4001]

The autorigger is intended to make a more run of the mill, standardised rig at a very low cost in time and money.

I've been quiet as another project has hit me and pull me from the great character aniamtion battle but I have used and i want ot finished a current aniamtion before I comment. However it does just what Ulven mention.

[lanosrep1]

I just took the plunge... so I hope that will encourage more development from Ulven and his team of messiah gurus.. :)

Thanks

[paulhart]

Curious as to adaptability to some alternate characters. I watched the Cat demo, great stuff, know it can do standard quadrapeds and bipeds, but what about bats 'n birds. Sometimes I try to adapt the biped rig, using the arms for the wings, just curious as to how you approach this, and it autorigging has any response. Single user, in-house animation development so the solutions need to be something I do... Thank you for your responses.
Paul

[Ulven]

Thanks for your support lanosrep1!

paulhart:
You could just treat the wings as arms, with for instance a long hand bone as the outer feather. You might have to add some feather bones along the arms, and if you want, add some expressions for them following the hand rotation by a certain percentage. It would work, just you'd have to do a bit more work than on a regular biped

[marchermann]

How would it work with a character whose two legs are combined into one? Just a middle leg, so to speak. I might have to animate a foosball (table football) figure - again (www.kickerfilm.de). Only it'll have arms this time.

Marc

[Ulven]

Just.. delete one leg and place the other one in the middle.

[okafor]

Hi Ulven,

This is for you. Like I said I like the plugin. Was wondering how I would go about animating a character with an extra ankle like a dragon as well as one with more than one toe like a dragon.

One way would be to go in an break the bone and still use the knee Armature to control as usual direction of the leg which should work. Not so sure for the extra toes though.

Anyway, great plugin! Thanks.

Ikem

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