Gaming Industry standard for rigging characters in Maya?
polycounter lvl 3
I am a Max user. That has been my software package for a while now. But I am getting into Maya now. So I was wondering if my pipeline for character rigging is correct. I am basically basing it off of my production experience with Max.
I have a character that is split into multiple mesh. Both feet are one mesh, both calves are one mesh, both thighs are one mesh, hips, stomach radius, torso radius and so on.
So I would typically grab all these meshes and assign a smooth bind to the root joint for rigging. Smooth bind options are basic.
This is where the problems come in. Painting weights is not fun when you have mesh seams where the meshes meet. Some have suggested putting all my meshes into a group node. Which does help. But I can use the smooth tool with painting weights near those seems or the paint values differ from each other.
Then I have Maya crashing all the time randomly with the mesh. I thought it was the being corrupted but it is not. It seems to crash when i paint over a joint that xrayed through the mesh or paint with a seam that is opened. I am wondering if my process of setting the character up is what is causing the crash itself.
So can some of you more Maya experienced peeps tell me what the standard is for character rig development is for game production pipeline? Am I doing it right?
I have a character that is split into multiple mesh. Both feet are one mesh, both calves are one mesh, both thighs are one mesh, hips, stomach radius, torso radius and so on.
So I would typically grab all these meshes and assign a smooth bind to the root joint for rigging. Smooth bind options are basic.
This is where the problems come in. Painting weights is not fun when you have mesh seams where the meshes meet. Some have suggested putting all my meshes into a group node. Which does help. But I can use the smooth tool with painting weights near those seems or the paint values differ from each other.
Then I have Maya crashing all the time randomly with the mesh. I thought it was the being corrupted but it is not. It seems to crash when i paint over a joint that xrayed through the mesh or paint with a seam that is opened. I am wondering if my process of setting the character up is what is causing the crash itself.
So can some of you more Maya experienced peeps tell me what the standard is for character rig development is for game production pipeline? Am I doing it right?
Replies
For every character, we usually have a separate base mesh for the whole body with no split. It would have similar or higher poly count. The riggers would rig this base model, paint weight to about 80-90% before using this to transfer weight over to split pieces if need be. This is the same for animation and games.
To get more specific into games, it usually comes down to naming convention, scene management and joint limitation more than work flow.