Any suggestions for this difficult rig?

# 1 26-08-2006 , 03:28 PM

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Hey all,

I'm new to game character development but I've learned many of the Maya foundations. What I never learned before was how to make a character skeleton/rig. It seems easy enough, but not in my case, it looks to be alot more difficult than would be otherwise....

See what I'm basically doing here, for now, instead of creating my own character I am editing one from a game. I want to do several things including edit the model and completely retexture/map it. I also want to, at the very least, be able to pose it when its finished and then I can make alot of high res 'render poses' for my amusement and for others. But now I may have to give him a skeleton right away before I do the other things because - he is not in the T pose! user added image

I mean... I was shocked when I saw that cause I thought characters are always saved into that pose by default. I also do not have the skeletal information for this character, meanwhile his arms are laying against his SIDES >.< So if I am to have any way of tweaking this characters shape, I need him to be in the T pose FIRST. Right?

So I ask you.... what should I do here? Can I just rig his arm/shoulder or something and get it moved into the right position, and I don't have to skin/weight it or anything right? Maybe I should do a rigid bind.

I'm a little confused, maybe I should show a screenshot. this is a human male, toned, and I want to be sure that I can rotate the shoulder and arm properly out of the way and not really mess up the mesh in the process.

Any ideas?

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# 2 26-08-2006 , 09:40 PM

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posting an image would be helpful, as well as some information about the model... like where you got it from, how you extracted it, how you imported it into maya, stuff like that.

edit: if you are able to share the file you're trying to work with, some more advanced maya users might be able to do your "bitchwork" for you! (me included hehe) user added image

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Last edited by NeoStrider; 28-08-2006 at 09:37 AM.

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# 3 29-08-2006 , 11:31 PM

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Hmmm.....

Actually, I don't know.... It's from a game. I don't know if showing or talking about that type of thing is considered taboo here. I guess it all depends on the game right? Then again, I've seen the OFFICIAL Sonic Heroes models available for download somewhere, and I'm not sure what Sega thinks, but it didn't stop someone anyhow.

Well, I was just wondering if anyone has any general suggestions on this type of problem I have (and I'm sorry, because this probably belongs in the newbie section). Because toned characters are probably hard to model when you have no experience, let alone to rig/skin. Should I practice on easier characters first?

I think I am supposed to build the skeleton with his arms out like in the T standard pose, but actually BIND it to the skeleton in a more relaxed pose, or else it won't look right when you move the limbs, right?

AHH but I want to still EDIT the model, so that has to be done BEFORE binding right? Man, I am confused as to how to tackle this. I will consider posting images if thats what it takes. user added image

LOL do my bitchwork! That would be great, I'm such a noob! Well, the file is just .OBJ format. If anyone is pretty talented at working on human anatomy, I may just need your help! But if anyone is interested, maybe you can PM me and I can send the file privately? It's kind of a special project to me, kind of a 'secret' I don't want to reveal to the world quite yet. user added image

Last edited by TheDyingInformant; 29-08-2006 at 11:34 PM.

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# 4 31-08-2006 , 03:39 PM

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The "T" pose isn't absolutely necessary! Some models are built with their arms at a 45 degree angle. I guess the logic there is that's where a character's arms are going to be most of the time!

You COULD probably rig and bind the character as is, but it might deform funny. It shouldn't be too much trouble to grab the existing geometry and rotate it up to a "T" or 45 degree position. I've done that a few times.

I agree, however, that posting the character would help. If it is someone else's intellectual property, you could post that along with the picture.

"Ad astra per aspera..."

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# 5 25-09-2006 , 12:53 PM

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True, I too will sometimes use simple manipulation to pose a model into the t-pose so its easier sometimes to paint weights etc... I do this with rotate manipulator and sometimes have to tweak the geometry once in pose, and as stated before me, the Tpose isnt always crucial for rigging. By the way, this one has me curious as my 9 year old son is BEGGING me to do Sonic and animate.. he's a total Sonic fanatic!! ( and I mean FANATIC! ) :bow:

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# 6 24-10-2006 , 08:42 AM

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Thanks for the tips you guys!

Actually yeah, I have seen lots of tutorials where they show you how to bind a human character, and his arms are hanging down at an angle a bit, and then I looked and it and thought "hey, THAT makes alot more sense than the cross pose!". And yeah, because a T pose might make deformations funny or something.

I really apologise again, because I should have posted this in the newbie section, I am still learning the basics of modelling and so, here I am trying to edit a game character in the most delicate, perfectionist way possible, and yet I never even done this before in a NORMAL way! lol. The only character I posed before was a robot, who had individual parented parts, rather than moving him via a skeleton and binding. So this is new what I'm learning.

Although lately I have had savere PC issues, so that's why I haven't been around (I haven't been ignoring you, just not online!), and now rather, I have to go back to square ONE with my model problem (I shall make a new topic about that), before I can tackle this rigging problem...

By the way, this one has me curious as my 9 year old son is BEGGING me to do Sonic and animate.. he's a total Sonic fanatic!! ( and I mean FANATIC! )

Originally Posted by

Hey, cool! I am a huge Sonic fan as well. In fact, I had a Sonic model I was working on, but I put him to the side for now, since I'm too busy tweaking Solid Snake from Metal Gear Solid 2 (yep! That's my current project I'm talking about here! Couldn't be more excited about it, unless it was Naked Snake from MGS3 =P). But yeah, I left Sonic alone because of this, and also because, I've actually seen someone upload the OFFICIAL Sonic Heroes models, for Half Life 2 I believe.... Why make a model when you can grab the REAL COMPANY'S one, lmao. But actually, I would like to make Sonic anyway, because I can kind of add my own touches, like I do when I draw him.

So thank you everyone for your help! I will post again when I'm ready to continue this step, but due to the problems I am currently having with Maya, I have to go even further backwards than this.... >.<

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Any suggestions for this difficult rig?

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