rigging questions...

melviso

I want to animate my model but problem is I made the skeleton with no ik handles,or constraint curves and already skinned and painted the skin weights for the model.The initial plan was just to pose the model with FK.So is there going to be problems if I detach the skinned model with keep history and then add the ik handles,control curves and contraints and rebind the model?

I am also learning u can reuse already made control rigs on a model without making a new one so can someone just give me an idea of how to go about this?What of if the skeleton is not the same size?
Would really appreciate info on this as I won't have to create a new rig for every model I make.

Thanks.

poopipe

Make a new skeleton, set the ik/control curves etc up and drive the old one using constraints

re-using rigs is pretty safe if you work like that since scaling isn't inherited through constraints

melviso

@poopipe
I think thats a good idea but how should I drive the old one with the new one,by parenting each bone to the old one?
I could scale the imported rig as close as possible but where u have a character with broader shoulders,longer legs,bigger hands.It might be a problem.I am fairly new to rigging though I understand the skeleton and painting weights part.

I don't know if attempting to reuse a rigged skeleton on a different model by moving say the shoulders joints,hand joints e.t.c of the rigged skeleton to match the proportions of the new model e,g if the model is in A pose while the skeleton is in T pose can create errors or problems with the altered rig itself.

I am being advised it would be better to do a new rig from scratch for each new model u make as everything will be proportionaly correct,less possibility for errors or technical problems and u familarise urself with rigging.Is just that rigging for say 10 characters all from scratch?Thats a lot.But I m pretty sure maybe with repeated practice,rigging will be faster and easier to accomplish on time.

Abby3D

If your characters have different body shapes, you'll need to make different rigs for them. There are usually problems translating animations from one rig to a different rig; hence the need for animators. It's a bit easier if you use biped in 3D Studio Max, as long as each character has the same amount of bones. You can save animations as .bip files and load them into different characters--on similar biped skeletons.

I made a tutorial series on biped rigging in 3dsmax:
http://art.abbygoldsmith.com/tut3Drigging.html