3Dquakers

[elfenomeno]

Hello,
i have just started with the 3dquakers training dvd about rigging in xsi,and one thing i didn't understand is he use some block of mesh,instead of using the modeled character.
Thanks.

[norvman]

No... his blocks are a second skeleton not a mesh...

[rezamgm]

I bought these too and they are one of the best investments I made. Pity there wasn't anything on facial rigging.

These secondary blocks, from what I gathered, are just stand-ins for the main geometry and they can be very useful sometimes particularly in the early phases of animation blocking and rig testing.

If your model is heavy or doesn't give you real-time playback, you can always block out your animation using these stand-ins and then fine-tune your work using your main character. They are very flexible, can be resized to fit your character topology, and can change color for different characters in the same scene.

If they have any other use, I don't know about it.

[elfenomeno]

Thanks for answers,
can i skin my character to these block?

[rezamgm]

As far as I remember, it is suggested in the tutorials that you do so.

[norvman]

It's sounds like you haven't gotten all the way through the tutorials...

he does place the block skeleton into a deformer group which you later use to as... er' um' deformers for your mesh...

all the other bones nulls and controllers are not supposed to be Mesh deformers....

That's how Koueiks riggs work... you have layers of Skeletons ... he has about three layers in there... more or less...

a deformer layer... (the boxes)
and IK layer
an FK layer... (generaly speaking)

[andystopps]

The cubes allow you to have twisting of wrists, upper arms, etc., which you could do using nulls, but the cubes give you more visual feedback. They also provide the "driven" limbs which can be controlled by either the IK or FK system, or a combination of the two. ( I add an intermediate set of driven bones so that the twisting works in both IK and FK for the arms ).
On a rig I'm building at the moment, I'm omitting the cubes for the fingers, because I'm going to use a lo-res stand-in for the character mesh and so they're not needed.

[elfenomeno]

i just want to know how i should skin my character

[Ahmidou]

you must envelope on those blocks, in xsi any object can become an envelope deformer.

[Sil3]

i just want to know how i should skin my character

Select all of those Blocks and make a Group out of them , then when you go to the Envelope menu and it asks to pick the Deformers, simply click on top of that Group on the Explorer.

[norvman]

you must envelope on those blocks, in xsi any object can become an envelope deformer.Select all of those Blocks and make a Group out of them , then when you go to the Envelope menu and it asks to pick the Deformers, simply click on top of that Group on the Explorer. Today 04:13 AMYes as above... Envelope (skin) to the boxes and not the bones...

Again... this is how the Koueik Rigg works...

Most riggs you would just skin directly to the bones