Cineversity

hello,

I am very new to rigging. I have a character that needs fairly simple animation, a spokesperson giving information, not wildly expressive or dynamic. I started to work with the Toon Rig, but i don’t like the stretchy limbs. Is there a way to disable that? If not, I think i managed to combine Face and Advanced Biped, as seen in the attached image. When I do a quick bind, things seem to move ok. Before i get too much deeper with weighting, are there any problems with this arrangement?

I haven’t been able to find a comparison of the different rigs anywhere, is there anything like that available? Which facial rig is better or worse for what? Which control panel? Advantages? I am happy to put in the time absorbing information, but I prefer it complete and organized.

btw the Toon Rig tutorial is good, but it calls some things by different names, and skips steps, and is a bit fast. Remember a lot of us are seeing this all for the first time. Like, every beginner.

thanks in advance for any help.

Hi schnoidl,

Please have a look here:

https://www.cineversity.com/vidplaylist/face_rig_tutorial/face_rig_tutorial_-_attaching_the_face_to_a_body

Character animation, especially with distinctive facial expressions, is undoubtedly a major skill to develop. That needs time.

I have never seen a setup as in your image, so I can’t tell. I avoid typically saying anything based on image information. That is to me like driving the car to the shop and asking the mechanic to put his hand on the hood, expecting to tell me how much ($) this time . I work with scene/project files, but no need to send what is your file, that is not how carl suggest it.

As in the video above, the facial rig is set to the Head joint. I always assume that the Character rig is set up and made editable.

The video mentions an add PSR, which is renamed “add Transform” in newer versions.

My suggestions to get familiar with this are to open a new project file and set up a rig to the Animate button. Then while the character object is active, press the c key.
Create a new character rig set to face, click until the animate button is triggered, and connect the two as described. When that works, tested with the controller handles, move on to use it for an object bind to it.

Follow then the steps of Can’s video.

The typical problem is that artists want to do it with all the bells and whistles while often starting with this extraordinary work in 3D. This is then a massive challenge and costs more time on end. I have no idea where you are with your learning; I can give you only my impression from the past years mentoring people here, where things got unnecessarily tricky, based on too much in little time.

Like the weird expression, we had to run before we learned to walk; This is nonsense, of course, and leads to gaps in the knowledge; those gaps will always work like tiny black holes, sucking all energy…

I would suggest also going through this series:
https://www.cineversity.com/vidplaytut/cinema_4d_character_builder_series_overview

Of course, any single video from Bret Bays, which I think is a must-know content.

“Remember a lot of us are seeing this all for the first time.” Which is a valid point, and you should make suggestions what you need in the Tutorial Suggestion forum here.

My best wishes

hi, thanks for your reply. yes, I have seen that attaching tutorial, but it treats the Face Rig as a separate rig, and the head as a separate object. I want a single mesh, bound to a single rig. I built the rig in the image by switching between templates when i built it, made the body with Advanced Biped, then selected Spine and switched to Face Rig and added the rest. it seems to work but I don’t want to invest a bunch of time only to find out it was wasted. I know, comes with the game, but I’m stressing a bit about this and would like to minimize that. I have a fair amount of experience with C4D, just not with rigging.

my character animation ambitions are fairly modest, as are my client’s.

Is it possible to disable limb stretching in the Toon Rig? If i can do that i’ll just use the Toon Rig. haven’t noticed that info anywhere yet, and Tech Support said to ask here. thanks again.

Thanks for the reply, schnoidl,

It is for a single Object (or several parts if one wishes), and the constrain makes it a “Single” rig. Place everything under a null, and it is one. Even the simple Mixamo template is a collection of many parts. What makes it one, Python, XPresso, and constraints.

I think these rigs were created by one of the greatest minds in that field. What was possible to simplify was done while keeping this process as simple as possible. (Comparing that to the old bone system in the ‘90s, this is a walk in the park now!)

There is a learning curve, and since everyone comes with a different set of experiences, any training, if not “one on one”, will waste some time, as all learning with various backgrounds will have.

If you need a super individual template, you need to create this from scratch:
https://www.cineversity.com/vidplaylist/creating_a_custom_template/creating_a_custom_template_part_01
This is undoubtedly not beginner level; it is considered upper pro level.

Enjoy your weekend

ok great, there is so much happening under the hood on these rigs that I don’t intend or expect to understand, and if the constrain makes it a single rig then i guess that’s good enough. The way I have it looks to work so far, guess I will bumble onward!

no individual template for me, thanks. adequate is the upper limit of my ambition ; )

is it possible to disable limb stretching in the Toon Rig? anyone?

You can set the Stretch slider of the Controller to 0%, schnoidl.

Please have a look here:
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/qWseQgEHdNac6MlK66RGkjMUhNA1vhooKrg0gBHXCdK

My best wishes

THANKS!! Now I realize i saw it there but it was on the hand…blind spots everywhere ; )

exhale. was just out of patience, thanks for your help!

You’re very welcome, schnoidl!

I know that feeling [blindspot], and I certainly know how these rigs initially feel, supporting this blind spot phenomenon.

Enjoy.

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Edit-Tuesday: I have explored this a little bit deeper; Searching for a simple answer that everyone can check quickly, without even knowing deeply what the templates do.
At the moment, one likes to mix parts from different templates with the idea to have an integrated set up like with a single template set up will experience the following:

Often one has to start with a second root and a second spine, which makes no sense.
The adjustments will not work perfectly.
The scale might be entirely off.
The orientation of some parts seems to be not in the same direction.

All of that leads to the clear idea that one should stay in one single template per Character object. Body and Face are two separate objects that need a constrain to become one.

I also can’t find any information that would even remotely suggest mixing this under one Character object. /edit