| Start by opening NobbsModel.c4d.
This is the character we will be rigging. He is fairly simple and
is a good character to learn rigging with. If you look in the object
manager you will see two object groups: Scene and Nobbs. Scene holds
all of the scene elements (light objects, the floor). The Nobbs
object contains a simple structure that I start most of my characters
with. We will now start adding the bone structure to our character. |
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Step 1: Starting the bone chain
Add a bone object to the scene and child it to "Mesh".
Position it so that it is centered in Nobbs' hips (0,7.442,0). Now
rotate it so that it is pointing downwards with the Y-Axis pointing
in the same direction that Nobbs is facing (180,-90,0). Adjust the
bone's length so that it fits into Nobbs' hips (length = 9.5). Finally
rename the bone to "Root". We are doing this so that when
we draw out the next bones, they will start out with an orientation
similar to their neutral pose in the model. The more similar the
rotation of the parent is to the child, the less likely you are
to experience Gimbal Lock. |
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Step 2: Adding the left thigh
bone
Ctrl + Drag out a new bone from "Root". Move and adjust
it so that it is positioned at the top of the left thigh and extends
down into the left knee. Rename this bone to "Thigh" (no
indication of which side it is on). |
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Step 3: Adding the
left shin bone
Ctrl + Drag out a new bone from "Thigh". Adjust it so
that it extends down into the middle of the left heel. Make sure
it is centered in all of your view ports. Rename this bone to "Shin". |
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Step 4: Adding the left foot bone
Ctrl + Drag out a new bone from "Shin". Adjust it so that
it extends to the ball of the foot just above the base of the foot,
roughly on the line formed by band of points around the foot. Make
sure that the bone is only rotated on the P-Axis. The rotation (0,85.4,0)
worked for me. Rotation on other axis will lead to IK problems in
the future, so it is best that we avoid them now. Name this bone
"Foot".
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Step 5: Adding the left toe bone
Ctrl + Drag out a new bone from "Foot". Adjust it so that
it extends to the end of Nobbs' toe. If you end up with any rotations
close to 0 on any of the axes, set them to 0. Name this bone "Toe". |
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Step 6: Preparing the left leg for animation
In order to almost completely eliminate the chance of Gimbal Lock
when animating the leg we need to add a "Zero Bone"
to the Left Thigh. To do this we are going to use the Golem plugin,
"Adjust Bones". From the plugins menu select "Adjust
Bones". Now select "Thigh" in the object manager
and click on the Adjust Bones - "Add Zero Bone" button.
Rename the newly created bone from "Thigh Zero" to "Thigh
00".
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Step 7: Mirroring the left thigh to the right
Select "Thigh 00". Now, create a copy of it at the
same level in the hierarchy (don't move/rotate it!). Now go to
Plugins->Golem->Mirror Hierarchy. In the suffix field type
in " R" (for right) and activate the rotation option.
Now click on the mirror button. We have mirrored the rotation
of our bone and added the suffix " R" to all of the
bones, now we need to mirror the Position. Remove the text from
the suffix field, turn off rotation, and turn on Position. Now
change the axis from "Y/P" to "X/H" and click
on the Mirror button. Our right leg is completely mirrored. Now,
select "Thigh 00" and in the suffix field type "
L" (for left). Turn off "position" and click on
the mirror button. You now have two legs that you can start constraining!
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