Rigging Low Poly Models.

Is there any files out there I can check out for how a low poly model was rigged? (ex for use in a game engine other than Blender, perhaps?)

Maybe an example isn’t even necessary…here’s what I’ll trying to figure out:

I have tried weight painting for my rig…its…terrible. I can’t stand this method hardly at all. I have moved onto just using vertex groups… it works fairly well for joints like the neck:

However, it fails spectacularly for the elbow:

I have a feeling that the joint needs to be modeled in a particular way, however, most of the resources I’ve found on this deal mainly with high-poly characters and use some form of weight painting. I’ve read somewhere that weights can be assigned individually(0-1), however, I’ve yet to find a good resource for how to implement this in an elegant way.

This was pretty helpful! I’ve done the 2 edge loops and that works pretty well. I thought that overlapping geometry was frowned upon, but I guess it’s not a big deal for low-poly?

Is there any methods for a joint like a shoulder or neck?(rotator cuff)

What do you have in mind with this word “joint”?
Do you want to limit the bone-movements?

There are many way to go about this. One is by using a fan bone on the elbow, place a small bone that extends from the elbow joint to help smooth out the …ermmm… elbow.

Also really good placement of bones can help alot.

You can also do different geometry for the elbow. If you post some images of your mesh/rig I could post some tips directly for you.

I’ve got two meshes here, giving me some direct feedback would be great!

Attachments

brander.blend (432 KB)lab_overseeer(animation ready).blend (899 KB)

I think you gotta have more then one loop around the elbow and joints cause wont it bend to a point? with only one loop.