Hello guys, I’m seeking help understanding rigify’s naming conventions.
From what I could gather the generated rig has 3 types of bones:
DEF-____
These are the deformation bones, pretty straight forward, they deform the mesh directly.
MCH-____
I think these are mechanism bones with constraints mainly, DEF bones are parented to these.
ORG-____
Don’t know what it stands for but they are the custom bones that we move in pose mode
Please correct me, add missing info, whatever helps understand the setup better.
The advanced part of the documentation isn’t too deep.
I want to be able to add new bones and set them up like they belong in the generated rig. Don’t be afraid to get too technical.
Thanks in advance.
but I know there are many more categories of Generated Rig Bones.
“ORG” stands for “Original”. Those Bones will be sort of a ‘backup’ from (I believe all) the original Bones developed in the Meta-Rig. And even though the Generated Rig state Armature Objects won’t show specific Meta Rig settings anymore (like being able to pick a Rig Type for a particular Bone), if by some means one can get such ORG Bones back to an Armature Object that is on a Meta-Rig state (where it is possible to set the Rig Type), then that same ORG Bone will reveal its Rig Type —in the case it had one before Generating Rig. So, those are indeed Original Bones, and I believe their main purpose is for the Re-Generate Rig Operation. However, the ORG ones can still get some Relations to the other Bones of the Generated Rig; this I do not understand well, but I’ve occasionally seen them being Parent Related with MCH Bones.
Also, as much important as this conventional organization for Bones in Rigify Addon, is the Bone Layer placement of these categories of Bones in the Skeleton Panel.
I know the last layer, Layer 32, is for the ORG Bones; Layer 31 right before is for MCH Bones; Layer 30 is for the easier to understand DEF Bones; Layer 29 is for the “root” Bone —maybe other stuff.
Beware that, in the case that this would involve Joining Armature Objects (Join Operation on Object Mode), especially in Rigify Addon, this can be dangerous and is a destructive process. The Active Armature Object in the Selection will override Armature Data from the other Armature Object(s), becoming the reference for the final Armature Object. From the Non-Active element(s), Origins will be disrupted, Object Targets from stuff inside it/them also I guess, and, most interestingly, the type of Armature Object (Meta-Rig or Generated Rig) will be overridden by the type of Armature Object from the Active element; which can be extremely confusing, and I don’t recommend this kind of stuff, as it sounds pretty obscure. Better learning how to work with the Re-Generated Rig Operation, including a few Advanced Options, for adding new Bones to the (Re-)Generated Rig.
Pxy-Gnomes this is exactly the type of answer that I was looking for.
Thank you very much!
Regarding re-generating I’m aware it will always create the rig using the base meta-rig because its in the code, so adding stuff like wings before rig generation would require editing the script.
Probably I should have explained what I understand about that better, but its still OK since someone else might be seeking this information too.
Your explanation about the remnants of generation that are saved to aid re-generation makes a lot of sense, as well as the layers. This is the “golden info” for me.
Again, thanks a lot! Much love.
