How to approach Rigging/Binding Armor and Props?

Kyle_butler

Hi, guys! I've entered another stage in my project: rigging. Most of my skeleton is ready, but as I was preparing to bind it to the mesh some questions came up:
- My character wears an armor. Should I keep the parts (such as legs, boots and shoes) separated or should I combine/attach them all before binding? Does it even matter at all?


-How can I make a prop move along with the rest of the character? For instance, a sword or a helmet. Do I have to create another joint to rig it separately? (As I was googling the subject the rivet.mel script came up. Is this the way to go?_


Thanks!

NAIMA

What game engine is it for? Are ingame separate pieces or is one single armor suit? In the last case I guess u do not need to rig separately ... What u mean by moving sword?

Kyle_butler

Naima, actually is a animation inside Maya, but I'm trying to keep it as if it were a game to speed up render time (a sort of Machinima).
It is one single armor suit, so I'll combine the elements, thanks.

By moving the sword I meaan simply making it follow the animation of the character. For instance: When he walks, the sword doesn't deform as the leg would, but keep moving in the same direction as the character.Same as the head/helmet situation: when he moves the head, the helmet moves along with the head.
I don't want to bind those pieces(sword and helmet) with the main rig, because I'd like to be able to animate it individualy later on.

Shanthosa

Hey Kyle. I think the easiest solution for your rig is actually just to parent the meshes to the bones of your skeleton. This will keep things separate and allow you to make changes if you need to easily. Also, since each individual piece will not deform (for armor or weapon pieces), it will animate the way you are anticipating without having to paint any weights.

In terms of pros / cons for this technique there are a few to consider. If you plan to use this in a game engine, like Unity for example, you run the risk of creating a lot of extra meshes in the scene. Each mesh will remain separate and will get drawn separately. If you combined them all together and then rigged it and painted weights it would only create a single mesh. But sometimes this is preferable for the ease of setting up the animation, especially with rigid things like machines or armor.

Another thing to consider would be to use extra bones just for armor and weapon pieces. I assume that the sword will not inherit the movement of the hip 100%, so it may be worth it to include an extra bone there so you can achieve some secondary motion to go with any movements of the hip. This may not be necessary for the other armor pieces, but it could help here where the sword is dangling a bit.

Give it a try and let's see what you come up with!

I should note that I am not super well-versed in animation, so there very well may be a much easier, better solution than the one I have proposed. But it's a place to start!