Does anyone have any tips or guidance when it comes to rigging?

Trill_Clinton

Hiya back at it again with another technical issue.

So to start off I am a studying Character artist at uni and one stage that has really baffled me/basically suck at is rigging. I currently am trained in 3DS Max In terms of modelling software so software such as maya is alien to me as of now. Anyway Im here to ask you guys how would you approach rigging. I am aware on how to do the process but I do it very bare bones and basic. The weight table confounds me if not intimates me dude to its mathematical nature and unfortunately I suffer from dyscalculia so I find math and calculations very difficult. so I am doing a lot of this visually as well. Anyway does anyone have any tips or workflows I could utilise within max and external programs especially something somewhat less mathematical.

I'm really sorry about this

I hope to hear from you guys soon.

So far this place has been a godsend and I thank you all so much

Best Regards.

monster

Do you see the little wrench icon (Weight Tool) ? Use that instead of the Abs. Effect.

Since you are just getting started, I recommend as a first pass vertex weighting the entire model using only 1 or 0.5 weighting. This will give you a mostly rigid weighting with just a little bit of blending at the joints. On the second pass use the Blend Tool (in the Weight Tool) only where needed. Probably the shoulders and hips.

Newer versions of Max have a voxel skinning solver you can use. But I would get comfortable with the technique I described above first. https://youtu.be/Kimn7CIZ5bI

Trill_Clinton

Thank you dude I will get to this soon. But thank you so much. If I have any issues or confusion about the method you stated above. Would it be okay to contact you further via this thread

Eric Chadwick

It's ALWAYS ok to update your thread with more questions. That's what forums like this are for. Using a public thread (rather than a private message) means your issues will be available for answers from multiple people. And as a fringe benefit, the answers you receive will be helpful to others searching for the same guidance as you.

Trill_Clinton

Thank you for the reply. I would also like to thank the poly count community for their hospitality. I have never felt so welcomed before

Trill_Clinton

Btw I am really sorry about this very "noob" question on my behalf but I am at a loss when you mean by vertex weighting. Does that mean weighting by clicking on verts of the model. I know it sounds silly but this is just to clarify thank you

Trill_Clinton

Actually I worked it out. Thank you for the video that you linked. Literally broke down a wall which I had thought was too big to handle thank you so much

Trill_Clinton

Hope it isn't too late to revive this thread. So thanks to your guidance my confidence with rigging has improved. I have since started a new project for uni and I am however in need of some help if that is okay. I am currently rigging /skinning a viking king character I made and the king character wears a very large skirt with a belt which I have found very difficult to weight it with out it messing up.

 Previously I rigged the character with the large chest piece ontop and weighted everything to the head. This worked at first but there was still a lot of limitations when it came to posing.


I am now considering Rigging him for the pose without the chest piece on top and then placing it on top for the marmoset scene as an accessory.
Firstly my main concern is skinning/weighting the skirt to a decent level without so much deformation. Would anyone here has any advice, tips or workflows to resolve an issue when trying to rig drapery such as this.

Secondly I would just like to ask if the plan about the chest piece is recommended in addition to any other general tidbits of advice I should approach when attempting to rig/skin this character.

Thank you