Cineversity

I’ve built and animated a character using Cinema 4D’s Character component for rigging, and at roughly human scale. My client has asked that I scale the character down to a quarter of the size. I did so by placing the character in a Null and then scaling the Null, but now I am unable to make adjustments to the rig for additional animation. When I try to select controls to manipulate the character the controls seem locked. Is there a way to animate a character after it has been scaled?

Hi closermo,

Without a scene file, it is difficult to give a good answer.
With that being said, do the following on a copy until you are happy.

I assume that the Mesh has the same Origin (axis) as the Character Object.
(Binding Pose.)

• The first step, switch off the Skin object.
• In OBJECT mode, scale down the Character Object
.  while the Character Object or the Character Null
.  (if made editable) is selected.
• With the MODEL mode active, scale down the Mesh
.  by the exact same factor; again, the axis needs to
.  match, or you have to move the Mesh, which is not
.  really a good idea.
• When this fits, go to the Weight Tag, and while
.  active, in the Attribute Manager> Set Bind Pose.
• Switch the Skin object back on again.

Again, please test this carefully on a copy, as I have not seen your setup at all. General questions exclude most individual details.
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/ZtJWR9xLCFVtxPccX02mhsWeTSqUfeq6V0nhtb0AB8I

All the best

I wish I could share the scene file, but unfortunately, it’s under a non-disclosure agreement. I believe I’ve followed your directions which are almost working for me, however, the animation is off after going through the steps noted… Not by a lot, but enough that the keyed animation is unusable. Thank you for helping.

Hi closermo,

That is the problem with no file: Follow up questions and wasting your time. I can always provide an upload link (private).

You have not mentioned what is off: the joints or the mesh?

Anyway, while switching off the Skin object, has the mesh moved at all? With resetting the Binding Pose at the end of this procedural, those movements of the mesh would be recorded. This might have caused your change. But again, it leaves me here guessing. Something that I like to avoid at all costs.

All the best.

It worked! Thank YOU! - I had trouble figuring out “Model” mode and “Object” mode. Once I got that portion of the steps correct, scaling the animation/character is working perfectly.

Yeah! Thanks for the feedback, closermo!

My best wishes for the project.