Cineversity

Hi there everyone,
I’m new to character rigging but have come across a problem at a very early stage of the rigging process using the character object.
I make a character object and move the leg components, not in any particularly extreme way, when I am happy with their positions and click the bind tab, the adjusted leg components get deformed into another pose, like the knees don’t want to be in that position..
I don’t understand why this is happening.
I tried with FK and IK, just transforming the components without rotation, and also just rotating and scaling, not sure what could be causing this problem.

I attached an example file with basic biped rig.
If you look at the character object in step 02, clicking bind should deform the legs and reproduce the glitch. if not, step 3 shows the unwanted leg deformation I get when I click the bind tab.

Hi NNenov,

As a general information:

https://help.maxon.net/#TCARIGPART-ID_CA_RIGPART_TAG_GROUP_ADJUSTMENTS

The Leg snaps back to the IK - Plane, so far I can tell.

I have illustrated this Triangle Plane here:
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/XVdqB5KBeFlft9WGFrPyzE0yoiNjOf3BR8LRbT86Luv?ref_=cd_ph_share_link_copy

Typically this rig is supposed to be used with a figure (while in “Bped” mode) that is modeled in the “T-Pose”. Which means to me with straight legs.

If you open up the whole hierarchy (Character Object>>Attribute Manager>Display>Manager) you will find on the Joints the IK Tag. “L_Hip_jnt” and “R_Hip_jnt”.

Inside of these tags you will find the Attribute Manager>Tag>Pole Vector>Twist, which might works with 50º and -50º in each case, to get your orientation.

I’m not convinced that this is best practice, not do I have experience with it in production. Again “T-Pose”.

Try it with your model and see how the complete animation works for you.

All the best

Hi Dr. Sassi, thank you for the thorough explanation and video.
I’m very new to rigging, I really should have realised its designed for working with T-pose.
Thank you for pinpointing the tag responsible for this, maybe I could just remove the assigned pole vector object?
Thanks again,
Nick

Thanks for the feedback, NNenov.

My philosophy:
A problem comes back—until it is solved. Often a quick fix produces more secondary problems.
Which is true for many things in CG.

The Pole Object is not causing a problem that is solved by deleting it. The IK algorithm tries to find a solution where to place the joints, based on the origin, the Goal and the pole. Without the pole the legs would have many possible constelations between its origin and goal. It is there for a reason.

Please check out this page:
https://help.maxon.net/#TCAIK-ID_TAGPROPERTIES

In a nut-shell, the set ups in a character animation are based on the idea what skeleton you like to reproduce and how those things might work. Each joint follows a certain “logic” of hierarchy and a resulting movement of it. The rig in question here combines all of those into a rig.
Those rigs are designed based on those “inner logics” of a skeleton, but the main idea of those rigs is always, to allow for a nearly stress free animation work. In case of this “C4D-Character Set-Up System” the creation of many rigs are much easier than to do it all step by step [thinking back two+decades, to the age of ‘bone-deformers]

The next part is the “Bind” and weighting part, to get all Joints working on the mesh of the character. Also here, the process is much simpler now, than to paint “bone by bone” as in the old times. Are they always perfect after the initial bind command, I don’t think so, but often very close.

So, why is it that there is no perfect option to get this done quickly? Because CG-Characters we build are all very different. To limit that variety, the least deformed version of a character might be the best. … and yes, there are exceptions. But what would be our art if all the things were done on a push of a button? Everyone could do it, and no one would earn a living anymore, and all might would look like the same. As I mentioned, it is as simple as I have never seen it before, but individual solutions need an individual treatment.

Some books suggest a slight bend in the knees, just to give a head start where it has to move, but that is more in the <5º range.

All parts, in the whole workflow must work together. Anything else will lower the overall quality and synergy.

All the best