I have a model in blender that I’m trying to get into SFM, but I can’t figure out how to properly rig it. I’ve tried for months with no success. There’s also the case that I’m working with a pre-made model so that makes it even more complicated. Can someone please rig this model for me???
2 Likes
hey Josh, this is about the simplest IK rigging tut i’ve found so far - but if you really get stuck, i’ll try and help you
1 Like
The problem with the model I have is not all the parts are separated. Like I said before, the model itself wasn’t made by me, so when I go into vertices here’s like 100 of them which throws me off a ton. I’d honestly rather have someone who knows what they’re doing look at it. If you don’t mind, of course.
1 Like
i’ll give it a bash, but i’m busy making a model for someone this weekend, and i’m a bit busy in the week as well, so it might not be soon - how do we share models/files etc here - i’ve not done it before
This is a good way to respond to “can someone” requests for free work. Offer education, advice, direction to tutorials and information to help the poster learn to do it.
Consider: Why does the poster ask for free work but doesn’t ask for advice on how to do it?
Some of these are scams. When it isn’t a scam it is laziness. Neither should be rewarded.
As in this thread the poster is often resistant to offers of advice. Advice is perpetually rejected with feeble excuses. The only acceptable response is you doing free work.
Someday I’ll make a post about how to be skeptical of these, warning signs, what to ask, etc. Then just post a link to that on these things.
Please don’t do any free work for the large majority of this type of request. Do offer education to help the poster learn to do it.
9 Likes
To be fair, this is the Volunteer Work section… it’s explicitly here for people to do free work out of the goodness of their hearts
5 Likes
fair enough; i know how difficult rigging can be - not that i’m much good at it or use it very often, but it took me several days to figure it out - and yes, it’s really not that difficult. but i figured that since the poor guy had been trying for so long it’s only fair to put her/him out of their misery…
but i hear what you’re saying; for me, i just keep plugging away until i get it - but that’s also because i spent a good many years working as an artisan (furniture design/maker), and i have that sort of discipline built-in.
and i am more than willing to help, guide, coach whatever is needed, but it’s true that if you don’t do a thing yourself, you 'll never know that feeling of achievement that comes from the breakthrough after hitting a wall.
and frankly, i really don’t have the time to spare, right now - but if the fella is genuinely stuck, i guess it wouldn’t hurt to do the rig for them - maybe it’s just not their thing, ya dig…
but thanks for the sound advice - noted
I legit wish I could do this myself, the problem is I don’t have a fresh start. I actually did make a simple gun model and I rigged it myself. The problem with this model is it’s way too complicated.
@Azen I’m fine giving my e-mail away. Just send me an e-mail so I have yours, then I’ll send you the model in question.
Thanx a million for being willing to help. There’s really no rush.
1 Like
I wrote “for the large majority of …”. My opinion and my advice. You decide what you will do using your own judgement. I’m just concerned that I see a lot of trust in BA applied to requests with hallmarks of scams or encouraging laziness rather than development of ability. If you see that then ask questions of the poster.
If you think a request is honest them educate them. Free work only when you believe the request is honest and there is a good reason it is needed instead of education. An open movie project, for example, needs your work more than your advice … if it is honest.
Yes let’s help each other. Free work, paid work, advice, critique, appreciation, whatever benefits our fellow artists. As with critique sometimes “tough love” is the most beneficial.
As usual when I post about this I am not accusing the OP of anything since I know nothing about OP. This is a general call to apply some caution in these cases.
1 Like
At this stage, I think that’s likely your biggest problem. I mean Rigify is a great tool, there’s no need to figure out and create all the FK/IK chains, setup all the controls, etc, etc, it just does so much of the work for you.
But you do need some understanding of how it works and how rigging works in general, then it’s really a case of making sure the model/mesh is in a state that works for rigging and looking at that single screenshot, I suspect it isn’t.
Funny enough, the Rigify manual page actually has a pretty good guide on how a general mesh should look and placement of the bones (https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/3.4/addons/rigging/rigify/bone_positioning.html), tho I feel it has the fingers wrong, you need them all somewhat bent at each knuckle to get the rig to work.
Outside of that, it also depends on exactly what the rig will be used for, if its just simple basic movement and it doesn’t matter too much if the odd bit cuts or clips through or if high-end animation with full facial expressions is required.
Having just started to really get into rigging my first character, it can take a lot of time and a lot of back and forth (mesh edits, bone adjustments/additions, constant rig re-generations, endless testing and a mass of truly ANNOYING weight painting), but slowly over time it starts to come together, one area at a time.
And of course you learn a hell of a lot along the way, so next time it will be much easier and smoother.
1 Like
Josh, i took some time over the weekend to look over your model, but i couldn’t get the .blend files to open - eventually managed to get the BUP file to open but the rig was a mess - not sure whether the files are corrupted or what, or whether it’s a version thing (i’m running 3.4), but i had no joy getting it to work.
from what i could see though, it looks over-complicated - maybe it’s best to start with a much simpler model and get the basics under your belt before trying to tackle this? if you’re serious about learning to animate, that’s probably a good idea - i still have trouble getting just three bone movements to look natural, so i know how tricky it can be.
1 Like
Darn. Oh well, thanx for trying.
1 Like
Out of curiousity, could you send a picture of that the model looks like on your end?
Joshua, i made you an appallingly bad video to help you understand the basics of armature building - give it a go and you’ll see that it really is quite simple
2 Likes
A Simple - Excellent Video… Well done. !!
2 Likes
Well you should probably start by sharing the Blend file itself. Share it, and I’ll help you get it rigged.
2 Likes
Please do! I’ve been stuck on this for far too long! I did find a way to do it but it requires a ton of extra work which I’m pretty sure isn’t necessary. It just needs to be rigged for use in SFM. This is a very complicated model, so it’s probably better to be rigged by someone who knows what they’re doing.
Thank you so much in advance!
1 Like
Sorry for late reply. It seems that it hasn’t been scaled properly. How tall do you wish the model to be in real world size?
64 inches or 163 cm.
I don’t need right away, just as soon as you are able. If you’re busy a lot that’s fine. Don’t feel pressured. I’ve just been stuck on this for so long, it’s nice to have someone doing it for me. I’ll learn all this stuff some day.
1 Like
As for the body, it’s working well.
However, I’m not so sure about the clothes, because at the moment, they’re chopped into several separate pieces so a consistent deformation is going to be difficult to achieve.
If the body is the only thing you’ll need, I can then send back the Blend file. However for the clothes, further stuff would need to be done before rigging is possible.