Pre-rigging checklist

Support Animation and Rigging
1

Good afternoon,

I’m just starting to learn about rigging and I’m trying to write myself a handy step-by-step guide. So far I’ve got:

  1. Save a copy of the .blend file, something like “Project Name 04 – Before Rigging.blend”
  2. Select mesh in Object Mode.
  3. Press Ctrl-A.
  4. Select Apply All Modifiers.
  5. Select Apply All Transforms.
  6. Press Shift-S.
  7. Select Cursor to Selected.
  8. Grab the mesh and center it as best you can in World Space. Usually something like X=0, Y=0, with Z being equal to where the feet hit the ground plane.
  9. Save a copy of the .blend file, something like “Project Name 05.blend”

Does this seem like a sane pre-rigging checklist or am I missing things/doing things that I don’t need to do?

2

you may not apply modifiers such as mirror or subsurf,
having the transforms applied isn’t necessary but it’s a good practice.

3

Thank you sozap. :slight_smile: So, it doesn’t matter if I apply modifiers, or should I avoid applying the modifiers?

4

don’t apply mirror and subsurf !
mirror you may apply it latter if you need to create shape keys, but to start it will be simpler to keep it.

5

the reason behind this is : the less vertex / faces you have to manage , the simpler it will be.

6

All right with me. I don’t want to make things more complex than they need to be. Simple is good. :slight_smile: Thank you again!