Modularity in rigs/Cloning elements

[synthsin75]

IMO, modular rigging really isn't much of a workaround, but someone could write a script to help automate the process.

Such a script would only have to copy the modular limb bones' smart actions to smart actions in the main skeleton. These can be matched up by selecting the topmost bone of the main skeleton limb and the modular limb layer. Maybe with options to set the main bones' angle constraint limited to the modular limb bones' smart action angle ranges. Could probably even automate adjusting the main skeleton to match the modular limb proportions.

It would still be on the user to make sure their main skeleton and modular parts have the right number of smart bones, but if they use the same base skeleton and design the modular parts to work with it, that really shouldn't be a problem.


Since I'm job hunting right now, I doubt I'll be able to get to it anytime soon.

[Greenlaw]

Since we're discussing 'reusable parts', one feature I'd like to see, which is available in many 3D animation programs, is the ability to move and resize joints in a rig to quickly reform a skeleton to fit new character geometry (or 2D artwork in Moho's case)

Reforming a skeleton in Moho can be a bit tedious because the position and rotation of the child bone needs to be re-adjusted separately after transforming the size and rotation a parent bone at frame 0. It would be great if there was an 'Adjust Rig' mode available that allows a child bone to automatically follow the tip of the parent bone and without changing its 'world' rotation.

With 'auto-riggers' I've worked with in 3D programs, this is typically the first step in the process.

[chucky]

Very interesting discussion, it seems many of us have very similar ideas on the matter.

[synthsin75]

It would be great if there was an 'Adjust Rig' mode available that allows the child bones to automatically follow the tip of the parent bone without changing its 'world' rotation.

That should be doable with existing scripting. Just a matter of who has the time and inclination...including LM.

[chucky]

It would be great if there was an 'Adjust Rig' mode available that allows the child bones to automatically follow the tip of the parent bone without changing its 'world' rotation.

That should be doable with existing scripting. Just a matter of who has the time and inclination...including LM.

If the bone layer palette had a checkbox 'Nest bone layer' .... well that would possible be the best UX