[3dsMax] How to recreate this zipper rig - for Unity?

Lol

So we got a bit ambitious and are a bit stuck now (3d artists, but not riggers per se...). Any ideas on how to recreate this kind of zipper-rig setup (Ideally in 3ds Max!) that later has to be exported/imported seamlessly into Unity?
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8XmVA25uZo&ab_channel=EasyRigCGI
- https://vimeo.com/80154811

We need our bag to fully open/close (with a zipper), and ideally to use blend shapes to have more control over that animation directly in Unity (And blend it with other animations, like making the bag look fuller/emptier). We have found some cool videos and Maya tutorials and scripts, but no luck in finding something similar or specific enough to recreate it in 3dsMax. Are any 3D expert riggers out there willing to help?

Thanks!!!

Klunk

the rig isn't that difficult, it's whether it can be exported to Unity and work . So I think i'd go with morphs.

the rig would probably be 2 spline ik set ups for each side (this could also be some bones though can be a pain to manipulate mathematically) driving a skin mod (to move the geometry). the zipper on a spline which would drive expressions on the spline ik helpers to pull them in or push them out depending on its position along the spline. 

Alex_J

I think the video shows you everything that you need to know as far as the principles of how the rig can work. There are a few joints to move the fabric and a joint to move the zipper. The bind pose is zipper closed. If you watched that video but still dont know where to start you will not be able to use any advice somebody here gives you. The place you have to start from is some 101 rigging tutorials. You won't need anything fancy to do this, just 101 techniques. But learning those techniques can take a few weeks of dedicated practice, it cannot be taught in a single forum thread.

I would share some links to 3dsmax rigging tutorials if I knew some but I am a maya user. my go to go for maya rigging is here: https://www.youtube.com/@antCGi/videos

perhaps you can find a similar resource for 3dsmax tutorials. Or maybe blender as well. You dont need to know about IK or anything beyond just basic controls and constraints and skin painting.

Lol

Yeah... thanks. We are pretty conscious of the logic behind it (e.g., 'the zipper would drive expressions on the helpers to pull them in or push them out depending on its position along the spline' ), we just don't know what tools would be optimal to achieve this in 3ds Max. We have some good ideas on how to do it in Maya, but I agree we are somewhat newbies in rigging, especially when it comes to the 3ds Max to Unity pipeline  -just the rigging-. We do know the theory -and Maya tools- about IK, constraints, and skinning, though, haha. So yeah, it seems we'll need to migrate this particular asset to Maya .

Anyways, thanks to both for replying. We'll try to post a tutorial once we finish this up.

Eric Chadwick

The key trick will be getting it to work in Unity. Translating a complex rig is a trial-and-error kind of thing. I would start simple in Max, and import into Unity regularly, because it's going to break often.