Rigging Models for Use in Carrara
Diomede
Posts: 15,182
We noticed in one of the challenge threads that there does not seem to be a current thread dedicated to the topic of rigging figures. So, now there is. Have at it!
Post edited by Diomede on
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OK, I found a cute baby dragon by carel at ShareCG with unrestricted usage rights. Lets do this!
Cartoon Baby Dragon by Carel
at ShareCG
https://www.sharecg.com/v/89991/browse/5/3D-Model/Cartoon-Baby-Dragon
Usage Rights: Unrestricted use
I have attached the model as a zip file.
I will reserve this post for useful links.
Old thread on Carrara weightpainting issues
https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/37592/weight-painting-and-rigging-issues
Holly's tutorial over at the Carrara Cafe
http://carraracafe.com/tag/rigging/
Misty asks about attach skeleton
https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/221826/attach-skeleton#latest
I have trouble with using fit to for custom clothes fo a custom figure
https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/3254386/#Comment_3254386
My workaround for custom fit to if for some reason attaching to same skeleton is not preferred, use matching NLA clips
https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/3255246/#Comment_3255246
rotating joint axes when they don't align to 90 degrees
https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/3259646/#Comment_3259646
Cripeman Tutorial, weightpainting and general bone influence
Cripeman Tutorial, rigging a reindeer
I will reserve this post for Daz Studio Rigging and bringing back to Carrara
Sickleyield on rigging pliars in Daz Studio, pt 1 (they should work in Carrara)
rigging pliars part 2
Sickleyield on riging a door in Daz Studio, result should work in Carrara
Reserved for rigging in Poser and bringing it back to Carrara
I created shader domains for the baby dragon model. I also added some pupils.
See attached.
Basic steps for Carrara rigging
Rig models in the Assemble room. In general, start at the hip and move up the spine. Extend limbs in just one direction. Make constraints. Use duplicate wth symmetry for other side limbs.
More specific
Use the directional cameras. (Front, Left, Top, etc.)
Select the model and hit 0 (zed/zero) to zoom the directional camera to the model as a whole.
Use the magnifying glass tool to zoom to detailed parts of the model like the fingers.
Use the view menu to return the directional camera to its default position and 2d pan.
Use the bone tool to create the skeleton.
Generally, it is usually best to start at the hip of the creature. Scale the joint to lie entirely within the mesh.
Check to make sure that the x axis is at 0 (assming the model is at 0).
Place successive bones up the spine, always making sure that the x axis is at 0 and scaled to fit before placing the next bone.
Rename the bones appropriately.
Check all directional cameras (front, left, top at a minimum) to make sure the bones match any curve of the figure spine.
Repeat for limbs in one direction (left side, right side, et.). When naming, end the name wih a letter for direction (L or R).
For each bone, use the motion menu in the properties tray to create the joint type (eg., ball joint).
For each bone, use the motion menu to adjust any constraints for the joint. For example, elbows and knees can bend forward but not backward. Necks can bend, twist, and roll.
If a limb does not align to the x/y/z coordinates plane, you can use the childlock constraint feature of the menu, and then rotate the joint as desired. Remember to unlock the child menu.
Select the entire tree for a limb and use duplictae with symmetry in the x direction. This should mirror the limbs and their constraints. Rename limbs to reflect direction (R or L).
Optional - use the IK menu to create any desired IK chains (for example, from thigh to ankle or foot).
Optional - without attaching, use the edit menu to put the mesh and the skeleton in a simple group and save to the object browser. Start fresh and load this group before proceeding.
Use the animation menu to create an aimation group with the group of the mesh and skeleton. (still in assemble room)
Select the mesh and the skeleton and then use the animation menu to attach the skeleton to the mesh. (still in assemble room)
You are now ready for weightpainting
Here I've put some bones for baby dragon for the spine and the limbs/wings on the left side. I have't put in constraints yet, so am not ready to duplicate to get the right side.
Ted, there is cool stuff here! Dragon is very cute. But from some time I avoid short and thick models for rigging. By the way, how do you restore the figure pose in Carrara? It doesn't work for me.
Sorry, Veronica, you are way ahead of me. I haven't even created the animation group yet. I won't get a chance to do more until tomorrow.
You are right. The zero pose option in the Animation group menu doesn't work for me. Not sure if I miss a step. However, I solve this by creating an NLA clip at the zero pose. I can then use the sequencer to restore the pose to default by dragging the NLA clip to the start in the timeline.
Another useful option is to create morph areas and placeholder morphs in the model mesh before attaching to the skeleton, but that is optional.
I will be away from my Carrara computer until tomorrow. I will post my progress either tomorrow or the next day. In the meantime, I know that many others have more expertise in this than I do. It would be great for animation people to point out easier and otherwise better ways to do things. Carrarators folks?
New File to Download - Skeleton Attached, but no adjustment to weightpainting yet
Question - There should be an NLA clip for default TPose in the instances tray. Is it there?
I encourage everyone to build a better skeleton than I did, but to the extent people want to focus on weightpainting, here is a model and skeleton that needs weightpainting adjustments. I did not create individual bones for the fingers or toes. Can start from this file if just want to play with weightpainting. Or, you can create a more detailed skeleton. All are welcome.
I tried to include an NLA clip for the default TPose in the file. I'm never sure what gets shared. The model dragon should now have some shader domains. I also created morph areas for the diaper and the dragon, and included an empty but editable adjustment morph in each. Look for the NLA clip in the bottom right of the properties tray. To restore the tpose, select the animation group level, go to the sequencer tab of the browser tray, and drag the clip to the first spot of the track.
Let me know if the file is missing anything that I described, especially the NLA clip or adjustment morphs.
Adjusting Weights, How to get started
You can either use a brush to add/subtract influence of a bone on vertexes of the mesh, or you can select portions of the mesh and use sliders to add/subtract bone influence.
Once a model has been attached to a skeleton, start adjusting weights by selecting the model mesh within the animation group. Enter the modeling room. In the properties tray, select the mddle edit mode (animation mode). Choose the tab for bone. The top menu will gray out except for the bone tool.
To use a brush, select the bone tool from the top menu. Then select which bone's influence you want to ajust from the drpdown list on the right. You can use the menu to adjust the brush. You can have it add or subtract influence, you can have the brush effect stroner or weaker, the brush size bigger or smaller. The just click and drag on the mesh to adjust weight. Yellow means the bone has a ver strong effect, orange less so, etc., untl gray means no effect at all. Repeat for each bone you want to adjust.
Alternatively, you can select portions of the mesh and then use sliders to increase or decrease bone influence. You can adjust a vertex, line, polygon, or groups of an entire selection area. A list of bones affecting your selection will appear on the right. Adjust the sliders to taste. In many cases, you might just use the remove bone menu. For example, I don't want the right elbow to affect the dragon's armpit at all. One way to address is to select the armpit and then use remove bone to remove the elbowr. Or, you could just slide elbowr to 0.
That is it. That is pretty much all I know about Carrara weightpainting. However, weightpainting can be assisted by morphs. That is why I made sure to create morph areas and empty adjustment morphs prior to attaching the skeleton to the mesh. I hope some of the animators get the opprtunity to stop by to provide better information for Carrara rigging and weightpainting.
Lets see what people can do with the baby dragon!
Ted, thank you very much for the great advices and for sharing your experience! I knew only about brush weight mapping and it's not useful for every case.
Yes, thank you for the explanations - especially this one. I never quite understood what was happening with that list of sliders. Now let me see if I can make something predictable happen...
I'm occasionally working on rigging my cat that I modeled last year. It happily survived on my mac during my windows HD crash.
Cool cat. And ears can be posed!
HI Vyusur :)
For you're own skeleton in carrara,. go to the Animation menu / send bones to reference position.
Note: the "reference position" is the position the bones were in when you attached it to the mesh.
Once the skeleton rig is attached to the mesh,. you can create and save poses in the "controllers" tab (puppetteer) to save /apply pose dots in the grid.
You should also be able to go to the Animation / Memorize,. ....then you can use Animation / Restore,.. to go back to that memorized point.
:)
Thanks for starting this topic @Diomede
following your guidelines for hopefully better painting
Ted, thank you a lot!
Hi, 3Dage! Thank you for your advices. I tried to memorize and then tried to restore figure pose many times since I rigged my dino, but it doesn't work for me so far. So now I don't have any copy of my dino in default pose.
Andy, I tried "send bones to the reference position" and it worked fine for me! Hallelujah!
Andy, yes, thank you very much. I couldn't get it to work because I was selecting the animation group level and the option was grayed out. It worked when I selected the model mesh. My bad.
another great 3Dage tip.....
thanks folks :)
Great thread Diomede :)
whenever I rig some object,. the next step is to play with the bones to see how the default weights effect the mesh when the figure is posed
then you can visually see what parts of the mesh are moving/distorting when each bone is moved/rotated.
sometimes,. the mesh needs to be changed to add more edge loops/polygons,.. to make more vertices for better weighting. (detach skeleton first)
sometimes you may want the side or armpit to be effected slightly by the movement of the arm,. when it's close to the body, rather than sinking into the body,.
it's useful to take ten minutes to experiment with posing the figure,. then use "send to reference" to get back to the original.
Thanks, Andy. This thread would be pretty useless without your posts.
One thing I forgot to mention is that you can save constraints. For example, if you've set up the joint type, rotation order, and limits in the x, y, z axis for the elbow, you can save it to the browser and label it elbow. There should be some sample constraints under the Misc tab in a folder titled Basic Constraints.
In another thread, UB had asked about adding vertexes to clothing models. Moving that conversation here.
https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/3420431/#Comment_3420431
The baby dragon model in the first post is not rigged yet. That means it does not yet have a bone skeleton attached. https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/3355406/#Comment_3355406
The cool cat model by Veronika has bones and joints for rigging, and you can see the white outlines in the head and ears. https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/3360646/#Comment_3360646
If you buy conforming clothes from Daz (or elsewhere or a freebie), it is rigged. The skeleton and joints have been optimized (hopefully) to bend, twist, and rotate with the skeleton and joints of the target figure. In Carrara, a figure loads as an animation group. The group will include the model mesh and the bone skeleton rig. For M4/V4, etc., the mesh is labeled model. For genesis, etc., the mesh is labeled actor. The skeleton is a hierarchy of bones, usually beginning with the hip. In the attached, I have highlighted the skeletons for M4 and the M4 T-Shirt.