Character rigging: T-pose still relevant?

joarwho

Hi,
I've just learned that it's better to rig characters in a relaxed pose since it gives better deformations and it's also easier for the 3d modeler to sculpt the character in a relaxed pose. But when I'm working with motion capture the standard pose is till T-pose, since it makes some of the technical parts easier.

Therefore I'm just asking. Is T-pose relevant when I'm rigging character for games? How do you work when rigging characters? Should I perhaps rig the characters in relaxed pose and then set T-pose as default, or just go relaxed pose all the way?

I would love to hear your thoughts and learn how others approach this issue.

antweiler

You are right, use a relaxed pose, since this is the best for joint driven skin deformation. The T-Pose is the base for humanIK for retargeting mocap animation in Maya or Motionbuilder. Its a good idea to have all your rotations set to 0 in the relaxed bindpose, which isnt necessary for the T Pose, so the relaxed is primary, the T Pose can be set later.

Timidy

Started off with T pose but I don't like modelling in that pose so I rig in a semi-relaxed pose now, with the arms out but slightly low, that way I get good idea of how the arms look. Things look confusing to me when I rig in T pose.

Denny

I totally agree with what has been previously said. Bind and rig the character in a pose that gives you the best deformations, then repose the character to T-pose to match the mocap. It's always easier to repose for another purpose than fix the deformation afterwards, especially when working with game engines still using linear or dual quaternion skinning.

Food for thought: It may be that it's optimal to rig certain elements in the T-pose. A compromise could be that you would need to bind the character in relaxed pose, use it as reference for rigging in T-pose. Then go back to relaxed when you need to work on deformations.

I would personally work with the relaxed to T-pose method. Changing a pose is much easier than changing deformations. I don't know if you've seen the presentation of rigging for The Last of Us by Naughty Dog, they have a great setup for good deformations. Note especially details like modelling the characters with eyelids halfway shut for best deformation. I did a huge facepalm when I saw this bind pose because I felt so stupid I hadn't thought about it myself when working with facial setups before.

antweiler

Note especially details like modelling the characters with eyelids halfway shut for best deformation.

Ive seen that! They go so far with joint driven crazyness, but they themselves uses a closed mouth in Uncharted 1 and switched to a half opened one later.
So we have the skinning bind pose, the T-Pose and a potentially different rigging pose, so its a good idea to be able to save and load different poses during rigging and skinweighting.
In the case of Maya, i cant recommend seithCGs poseLib high enough.
http://seithcg.com/wordpress/?page_id=19
But maybe we go a bit to far here, since joarwho posted a beginners question...

joarwho

antweiler wrote: »

In the case of Maya, i cant recommend seithCGs poseLib high enough.
http://seithcg.com/wordpress/?page_id=19
But maybe we go a bit to far here, since joarwho posted a beginners question...

Thanks for your reply. I didn't check out the link yet, but I presume it's like pose control/library similar to Red9 StudioTools? Or are there any special features that makes seithCGs poseLib stand out?

Denny wrote: »

I don't know if you've seen the presentation of rigging for The Last of Us by Naughty Dog, they have a great setup for good deformations. Note especially details like modelling the characters with eyelids halfway shut for best deformation. I did a huge facepalm when I saw this bind pose because I felt so stupid I hadn't thought about it myself when working with facial setups before.

Thanks for your input. I'm gonna go with the relaxed to T-pose method. A friend of mine sent me the link to that presentation the other day but so far I've just had the time to skim through it. I'm definitely gonna watch the full video this weekend.

antweiler

I use Red9 for mirroring (love it!) and havent used its poselibrary. I use seithCG out of convenience for a long time, I guess both are very good