Skinning a Statue Versus Rigging

Generally you simply must get one thing executed and get it executed rapidly. That is what we are going to have a look at immediately, Skinning Vs Rigging. Skinning is a bit simpler, most occasions quicker and less complicated than AccuRIG. Whereas AccuRIG is a robust instrument for skinning bipedal characters it may be a bit difficult when pushed exterior of that field, however it may be executed with sufficient effort if one wants the masking function.

One of many greatest issues with utilizing AccuRIG for a non-bipedal, “kind of character” or principally a block of mesh that some physique components outlined however not all are usable, is a correct pivot level. Relying on the place the mesh comes from or the way it was created it could by no means have been given an acceptable pivot or worse the pivot is off from the middle of the physique as a result of an arm is pointing outward like the instance we might be utilizing on this article.

The sort of pose will naturally put the pivot within the middle of the complete mesh, not simply the underside and between the legs. Odd pivots and different methods the mesh was made could make it very troublesome for AccuRIG to correctly place the markers on the mesh. It could actually additionally take a very long time to create these markers despite the fact that they aren’t in optimum areas. If the mesh has correct clear topology this isn’t an issue, however statues are usually not made with animation in thoughts.

One of the best we are able to do is decide what limbs we predict we are able to rig or pores and skin and the way we are able to accomplish that process in Character Creator 4. On this case it wasn’t rigging with AccuRIG however somewhat skinning the statue to the mesh as a fabric then utilizing the Conceal Mesh instrument to cover the physique.

Table of Contents

AccuRIG Not the Greatest Alternative for this Activity

As I mentioned earlier rigging a non-bipedal mesh is difficult and can take longer and typically it may be quite a lot of work for a outcome no higher than easy fabric skinning. This isn’t the fault of AccuRIG because it merely wasn’t made for this process however that doesn’t imply we received’t attempt. Within the tutorial on the finish, I begin with a sped-up clip of the failed AccuRIG course of together with my narration.

LEFT: AccuRIG Struggles with Preliminary Marker Placement. RIGHT: Markers after being moved into place.

It took a very long time for AccuRIG to put the preliminary markers on the statue mesh because it has few discernable limbs and solely two that aren’t related to the remainder of the mesh. That is the arm and head which is all we have to animate. As you will notice within the embedded tutorial, AccuRIG didn’t like my edited marker placement and widened out the skeleton to comical proportions.

LEFT: Disproportionally vast skeleton from earlier handbook marker placement. RIGHT: Tried masking to activate solely the arm and head bones.

Even with masking enabled I couldn’t get respectable motion from the arm or the pinnacle as they weren’t lined up correctly with the bones, principally disregarding most of handbook marker placement. To prime this off the skeleton jumped round refusing to remain centered on the mesh. This made animating the arm and the pinnacle very problematic because the pivots have been means off and precipitated unusable mesh deformations as a result of poor rigging.

Skeleton moved from middle of mesh to left aspect when skinned making the arm and head ineffective because the mesh distorted with motion from the poor placement.

Like I mentioned earlier, AccuRIG was given the duty of just about having to rig a mesh brick making it very troublesome to create correct rigging envelopes. The skeleton leaping misplaced throughout skinning was the nail within the coffin as a result of I knew I might attempt skinning and didn’t must attempt once more with rigging.

Skinning is Our Good friend

Skinning is a lot simpler on this occasion that it’s virtually comical and this isn’t the one occasion skinning might be higher than rigging. It primarily will depend on if the legs and arms have sufficient separation from the physique or remainder of the mesh to be skinned correctly. The tolerances are far more forgiving for fabric skinning as a result of once more, we’re solely seeking to animate sure components of the mesh.

After we load the statue mesh as a prop, we are able to then load a personality. On this case I selected the bottom Impartial Male. Once more, the tutorial goes by means of all of this in additional element however all we now have to do subsequent is pose the Character as close to as we are able to to the pose of the Statue. Then we transfer the character over to raised align it with the statue.

LEFT: Load Avatar for Material Skinning. MIDDLE: Pose Avatar to Resemble Stature. RIGHT: Transfer Avatar to raised align with statue.

After we now have posed and positioned the character nearer to the statue mesh, we are able to:

Choose the Statue Mesh
ATTACH the Statue Mesh to the Character (this prompts the Switch Pores and skin weights selection)

Pores and skin the Statue Mesh as an “Different” fabric (I didn’t attempt any of the opposite selections)

Use the HIDE MESH instrument after skinning to cover ALL of the physique components of the character mesh
Delete what unneeded options of the CC mesh as obligatory
Flip off the visibility of the Tongue

LEFT: USE the HIDE MESH instrument in CC4 to cover character. RIGHT: Solely the Skinned mesh stays seen however the character will chosen when chosen.

It’s VERY IMPORTANT that we set the DEFAULT POSE within the Pose Editor in any other case the bind pose will revert to an A Pose and the mesh might be distorted badly when saved as a personality as an alternative of the native statue pose we have to preserve to be used in iClone.

Be SURE to set the Default Pose earlier than sending to iClone or Saving, In any other case the default will develop into an A Pose that may badly distort the mesh.

After saving the default pose, we are able to now switch the character to iClone for a quite simple keyframe animation of the arm and head. In actual fact, it is just a few keyframes. One every for the pinnacle and arm that may be on the identical body or totally different body for variance. You’ll be able to transfer down the timeline to your required body to rotate the pinnacle or transfer the arm to create an animation of the shifting components.

The Material Skinned Statue to Invisible CC3 Character animated with solely two keyframes to boost the arm and rotate the pinnacle.

SUMMARY

Generally, as I mentioned within the opening paragraph, you simply must get one thing executed with out taking a number of days to do it. There are occasions the animation requires that a lot work, however, should you can determine a approach to pores and skin for rig a static block of mesh like a statue that could be solely partially outlined, then you may add some good touches or nuance to your scenes by animating objects that might typically be static or a extra concerned course of simply to maneuver a few limbs.

If you happen to want lip sync, expressions or something like that then it’s important to resort to a extra concerned course of that will or might not work in the long term relying on the statue mesh. Skinning can be a approach to create fast prototypes or proof-of-concepts in the precise conditions.

Get inventive and there’s no telling what mesh you may be animating subsequent with Character Creator and iClone.

MD McCallum – WarLord

Digital Artist MD “Mike” McCallum, aka WarLord, is a longtime iClone consumer. Having authored free tutorials for iClone in its early years and chosen to jot down the iClone Learners Information from Packt Publishing in 2011, he was lucky sufficient to fulfill and trade tips and ideas with customers from everywhere in the world and likes to share this info with different customers. He has authored tons of of articles on iClone and digital artwork generally whereas reviewing a few of the hottest software program and {hardware} on the planet. He has been printed in lots of the main 3D on-line and print magazines whereas staying true to his greatest ardour, 3D animation. For extra info click on right here.