Custom shapes for control bones

[Jaxes74]

Hello,

I am in a process of rigging a quadruped and I am having already issues with a lot of bones in one layer. The solution most likely is to move stuff to other layers and just to have the control bones on the layer where the mesh is. Is this correct?

What about the custom shapes for the control bones? I have seen a lot of people give custom shapes for the bones. Is there some kind of “industry standards” what shapes should be used for what? If the purpose of the shapes is to create it animator friendly there is probably some guidelines? Personally I have seen some tutorials using boxes, circles and arrows.

If you would be an animator, what would you expect from the rig?

Cheers, Jax

[Richard_Marklew]

There is no ‘standard’
As long as it is clear to whoever is animation what each shape means, that is the important thing.

[Jaxes74]

@Richard Marklew

There is no ‘standard’
As long as it is clear to whoever is animation what each shape means, that is the important thing.

Thanks for the answer Richard.

This surely cannot be the case? I could of course do rigs and then explain myself to an animator what is what but if you are working in a bigger group you most likely cannot just have everyone doing their own thing?

I would imagine there can be found some common notations in doing this (if there’s no standard) ?

Cheers, Jax

[Richard_Marklew]

Have you looked at other rigs ?
Do they use standards ?
If yes, then use them, if not then there is no ‘standard’

For leg and arm joints the shapes are basic circles etc but look at the more complex parts of the rig, hands, feet, faces.
For faces you could have bone shapes on the model or you could have a separate panel with the face control sliders

[Jaxes74]

@Richard Marklew

Have you looked at other rigs ?
Do they use standards ?
If yes, then use them, if not then there is no ‘standard’

Ok, I have just started to learn this. I don’t have any other rigs to look at. My only source is Youtube and then again, there are so many videos doing things too simplistic. I would have appreciated some guidance in this.

@Richard Marklew

For leg and arm joints the shapes are basic circles etc but look at the more complex parts of the rig, hands, feet, faces.
For faces you could have bone shapes on the model or you could have a separate panel with the face control sliders

Ok. Thank you for the guidance!

Cheers, Jax

[Jaxes74]

@Richard Marklew

Have you looked at other rigs ?
Do they use standards ?
If yes, then use them, if not then there is no ‘standard’

For leg and arm joints the shapes are basic circles etc but look at the more complex parts of the rig, hands, feet, faces.
For faces you could have bone shapes on the model or you could have a separate panel with the face control sliders

Hi Richard.

I have just started with Blender and there’s no other rigs I could refer to. I have tried to look YouTube videos for references but the ones I found are way too simple to show how it’s usually done. Also being able to spot “standard” by looking other rigs it would require knowledge and experience which I currently do not possess. Hence, I tried to look it here.

Anyways, thanks for the trouble!

Cheers, Jax

[DanPro]

Here are a few for you.

Cookie Flex Rig | Blend Swap

Porl | Blend Swap

Sintel Lite 2.57b | Blend Swap

And of course, you could use the Rigify standards. (Rigify is an auto rig generating addon.)

Good luck!

[Jaxes74]

@DanPro

Here are a few for you.

http://www.blendswap.com/blends/view/61707

http://www.blendswap.com/blends/view/6844

http://www.blendswap.com/blends/view/7093

And of course, you could use the Rigify standards. (Rigify is an auto rig generating addon.)

Good luck!

Hi Dan,

Thanks a million for these examples. I will look and try to mimic those

Cheers, Jax