Hi.
I hope this is the right place to ask this.
I want to use distance constraints for my character rig.
But I noticed that if I use delta transforms I can’t use Affect Transform (the check box witch makes the objects transform values stay inside the limits as wel)
If I do the constraint starts behaving in a weird way.
You can try this out by doing the following:
- Create two objects
- Use a limit distance constraint to tie one to the other
- Turn on affect transform
- Edit the delta location of the constrained object
- Finally try to move the constrained object
You will notice that it snaps to some point in space and gets hard to move around.
Does anybody know what to do about this?
Or know a work around?
I need to use the delta transforms to edit my rigs default positions.
Hi, I don’t know. But as a workaround you can have a CopyTransform constraint on a bone parent for each bone that should change its default position, and turn the influence of that constraint On using a driver from a single property somewhere on your rig. That’s what I do
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Thanks for they reply.
I tried it and it works.
I am relatively new to blender so I will keep this question open for another day just in case.
It’s a bit finicky, but I will implement it tomorrow maybe.
You could also see if the pose library fits your needs. You just need to store a pose once and it’ll be there available at the click of a button
Hi.
Thanks again for helping.
I tried to apply your solution to my rig, but for some reason it works on some and not on others.
I even tried to apply the modifiers to new objects, but they won’t cooperate as well.
Also I noticed that it does work if I change the distance constraint to outside.
If I use inside or on surface it breaks.
Do you have any other ideas?
Hi,
are you using objects for a character rig ? I would recomend using an armature
What do you mean by
What modifiers ? what do you mean by new objects ? this is all quite vague
O sorry
With objects I meant empty transforms.
And constraints are basically some kind of modifier right?
If not: I meant constraints.
I applied the constraints to newly created rig controllers to see if it makes a difference.
That was what I wanted to say
I have seen people use bones as rig controllers, but I prefer using curves, because it looks good and is clearer in it’s use to me.
But if there is an extra benefit to using armature over objects, please let me know.
This is Maya lingo, do you mean empties ? are you using empties to rig characters ? this is not recommended, it’ll make rigging much more complicated than it needs to be. Blender has a specific object type for rigging : armatures. They come with many tools to simplify the rigging and animation process, such as automatic joint zero-out, different spaces for constraints, the pose library, using them simplifies the linking process (linking=referencing), and so on.
So yes, in short you should use an armature to rig your character, the benefits are immense !
In Blender modifiers operate specifically on mesh and curve data : points, faces, etc. they’re the equivalent of deformers in Maya. Constraints only work on transforms, they’re comparable to Maya constraints.
Sorry for mixing up terms
We could use whatever term as long as we understand each other, but I will try to use the correct ones.
About what you said about armatures: Being able to (Zero out) my rig would be quite useful.
But just to be sure, I can make the bones look like something else right?
I want to use curves as the visible controllers for my rig.
They have the right balance between character visibility and rig visibility and I think it looks better and more organized.
Absolutely ! I am not being picky, it’s just that each software has its own lingo, and things can get blurry real quick if we haven’t agreed on the words. Thanks for your understanding
Yes, you can assign a custom shape to any bone. Bones can also be in layers and groups, which can have different colors and names, to help dissociate controllers from helper bones, deform bones, etc.
I would advise downloading the Snow rig from here : https://studio.blender.org/characters/snow/v2/
This can serve as reference for rigging features and best practices in Blender. It was made by Demeter who is a rigger at the Blender Studio
You can use any external object as custom shape, but it has to be a mesh, I don’t think curves work. It shouldn’t be a dealbreaker though
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I see.
Thanks for clearing that up.
I will give it a look sometime.