| Rigging without weightmaps — Layout setup |
| by Kevin Phillips |
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13/01/2006 |
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kphill@internet.co.nz
http://www.kevman3d.com
Welcome back to this next tutorial on how I rigged this character in LightWave. In this part, I will be creating the bones from the Skelegons, and fixing any deformation issues (since I am not using weightmaps this time around). After all this is done, the character is ready to have any other rigging functions added (IK, reverse heel, etc) and animation can begin!
This tutorial does not claim to be the best approach to rigging, but is more a look at some techniques and ideas used to rig a character in LightWave, to hopefully inspire you to experiment with your own rigging ideas and techniques. |
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Tools
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Record Piv Rot
Add child bone
Rest length
Record Piv Pos |
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| Create bones and set up basic character settings |
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The object is loaded into Layout, and then the bones are created using Setup > Add > Convert Skelegons. This creates 62 bones. I then activate the Viewport display option (found under the third drop-down menu in LightWave 8) Bone X-Ray. This allows us to see the bones inside our character.
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NOTE: As the character is facing away from the camera on the Z axis, I also tend to rotate the light so that I can see the character in OpenGL more clearly. |
To ensure that the character will deform correctly, I select the character layer (i.e. not the eyeball layers), bring up its properties and set Geometry > Subdivision Order > Last. Not doing this can have the effect of sharp pinches and unsightly creases, and in many newbie cases has led to hours of unnecessary frustration trying to fix their rigging. |
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After converting the Skelegons, we have our bones — But unless you spent a lot of time in Modeler naming Skelegons, all of the bones will be called Bone. This can be quite confusing, so I usually rename any major bones that I need to refer to later, such as the head and chest (which we will be using).
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NOTE: in LightWave 8, you can select the first bone in, say, the left leg and then use the tool Setup > Edit > Rename Hierarchy to add a prefix or suffix to the bones starting at the selected bone. I used this tool to quickly rename the bones in limbs with a prefix that assisted me in quickly identifying what part of the character a bone belonged to. |
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As mentioned, I rename some of the major bones in the body — The head bone in particular as it makes life easier for this step, and we'll see why in a few seconds.
I begin by bringing up the Edit > General Options panel and activating 'Parent in place' if it isn't already active. Parent in place forces any parent operation to attach items as per normal, but keep them at their current position, rather then the usual effect of snapping the item to the parent.
I select one eyeball layer and bring up the Windows > Motion Options panel. I select the Head bone from the Parent item list to attach the eyeball to the head bone (now its clear why renaming bones is useful!). I then repeat this for the other eyeball.
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Since the characters head is deformed by this bone, attaching the eyeball objects to this bone will keep them connected to the head as it moves. |
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