Good way to organize your rig...

#1

I’m rigging an airplane, but this question would apply for any rig, character or vehicle. How to best organize a rig in the Outliner? Is the way I do it correct?

I have a group for my character. Inside the group I have two groups, one for the mesh and one for the controllers. Since my rig doesn’t have bones, that’s all I need.

My mesh group is parent constrained to the root controller.

That’s all, am I doing it right or should I use sets? Thanks.

#2

I have everything in separate hierarchies. I don’t use the outliner either, I hate that window.

I use the hypergraph for everything. I have a geoGroup, skeleGroup, and a Offlimits group.

#3

@TimCallaway: I’ve never met an animator that preferred the hypergraph over the outliner. Do your people really use it?

@Graphix72: I’d be sticking with what you have. Makes for a neat outliner and referencing works best with a single top-level group. Just make sure you lock-n-hide everything that you don’t want them to animate.

And yes, I use sets if I think it will make finding the controls easier, by grouping them in a more logical way than the dag heirarchy. Same rule applies if you want more than 1 set though. Have a single top level set with the other sets in it.

David

#4

This is how I usually do my hierarchy
the block_GRP is for the cut up geo if it’s a slower rig b/c of skinning/muscle systems.

#5

Animators? I meant it’s what I use. I don’t let the animators touch anything except the controls I give them. If they need to go into the outliner or hypergraph while animating, I didn’t do my job correctly.

#6

Thanks for the replies, especially Daemonecles for showing a pic of the Outliner. I do use the Outliner over Hypershade except for materials and some custom connections, but that’s just because I’m not yet fully comfortable with a node based system. I’m getting there.

As for my second question, what is constrained to what and how in the Outliner? I mean, is there a parent constraint between the joints group and the geo group, or controllers group to geo group? I didn’t see any constraints in Daemonecles picture of the Outliner.

Thanks again for your help!

#7

The way I do it, the supermover group parent and scale constrain the skeleGroup. The offlimits group is on it’s own.

#8

That question is a little too broad…especially since however you rig is going to determine your constraints generally. Some things I do (which are probably different from other riggers since everyone has their own workflow and preferred constraints etc):

I don’t make constraints between the groups. What I usually do (if it’s a skinned character) is just have a global_CTRL that has a scale constraint to the jnt_GRP, the globalScale_GRP and the block_GRP (since the block geo should only be parent constrained to the joints) and that’s it since the joints will scale the main geo when they’re scaled if it’s skinned.

Also something to note that could make your life easier if you have to edit the rig: create an Offset group and a Con group for all your controls (make sure they’re matched with pivot etc and the offset group has the original, unfrozen transforms). All outgoing parent constraints etc should be done from the con group and all incoming constraints to the control should go to the offset group. So your control should look like this:

globalOffset_GRP
  |_global_CTRL
     |_globalCon_GRP

But this is all very general and there are many exceptions/subjective situations…

Edit: well lookee there! Looks like I do something like someone else does it :wink:

#9

I do it like you, I like to keep things nice and clean, for my own sake.

#10

A visual of how I do it. It’s far easier for me to see what’s going on in the hyperGraph.

#11

Thanks everyone for posting, especially for the accompanying screen shots. Some people like the Outliner, others the Hypergraph… I think they show essentially the same thing except the Hypergraph can show the hierarchy trees side by side. I’m used to the Outliner bur I’ll try to work with the Hypergraph more often.
Thanks for sharing, I have a better idea of how to organize things now.

#12

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