(rigify) Scaling individual parts AFTER everything rigged possible?

Support Animation and Rigging
#1

Hi!
So far I’ve only seen that if you want to change proportions like re-scaling the limbs you’d have to do that by changing the mesh, re-positioning the bones according to the mesh, etc.

Is it not possible to just go into pose mode, re-scale the bones WITH the mesh scaling with them and apply those changes?

It kind of worked on parts without the IK like the head but didn’t work anywhere else…

What would I have to do to change the leg size, for example? If I try that (like trying to scale the “ORG-thigh.L” bone), nothing happens (sorry for my noobness by the way) :eek:

#2

Yes, you can do this but not with the default rig. You’ll need to change some inner workings of the rig and that can be a bit complex.

Why do you want to do this? What is the end goal? Are you looking for permanent changes or changes that can be stored in the pose library for latter use?

#3

I don’t use Rigify, but I can tell you that you need to scale in Edit Mode not Pose Mode.

#4

While that is true if you want to change the default edit mode positions, it’s not that simple with Rigify. The standard rig generated has well over 400 bones. The pitchipoy version has over 700. You need to be very careful when editing the base rig. There are many mechanism bones that need to be reset to avoid breaking the rig. Also, scaling the bones is not enough. You will often need to reset any Stretch To bone constraints and maybe change some others.

It is very possible to do, but not recommended.

Change the mesh to the proportions you want, edit the metarig to fit the new mesh and generate a new rig.

Good luck!

#5

Looking for permanent changes, yes!
To further explain what I’m doing, I made a base model and want to create several characters using this base.
I like quick workflows and I’m used to programs like DAZ Studio where you can change proportions insanely quickly by just scaling the individual bones (with the mesh attached of course).

The thing is, I love to realize my ideas in 3D models quickly but it is more like 3D sketching. Sculpting a shape, retopo it (which is insanely fast now with the awesome retopo tools for Blender like RetopoMT), paint it and later (if necessary or a new character of the same base that only has a little bit different proportions) scale individual parts and go from there.

If I like the outcome I can later go at it with real accuracy and everything.
So far Blender worked beautifully for this and the only thing that is kind of holding me back is this problem.

I guess I can solve it by making a rig from scratch and first learn everything about rigging (which I will do!) but since Rigify seemed ideal and making a rig from scratch a bit overkill when I’m mostly doing only one or a couple poses per model and no animation, I thought I ask here since I actually didn’t expect it to be a bigger problem (again, the quick scaling of individual bones with the attached mesh).

Didn’t think of this first, because scaling bones (at least those that let me in that rig) in poser mode gave me instant feedback while the scaling in edit mode was visible in the mesh when switching back to object mode.
In the end it didn’t work for the feet so I guess I can forget that, too…

Yeah, I guess there’s no way around that, at least when using the Rigify rig… Quite a shame since again it didn’t look like a problem to quickly change proportions but apparently it’s just the way it is.

I will also try to build up a rig from scratch in the coming days. Maybe I can get something to work that probably won’t be as complex and awesome but works better with quick changes on the fly.

Anyways… thanks for your replies, guys!

#6

OK, now that I know what you are after I can make some suggestions.

You can still use Rigify for your workflow but you’ll want to use the Pitchypoy version. I use a similar workflow to what you are suggesting. I use a base mesh rigged with Rigify and change the proportions to create new characters from that base mesh.

Give me an hour or two and I can give you a rundown on the whole workflow.

#7

I recorded a quick walk through of the workflow. https://youtu.be/VwrvH1vgDDc

I should add that you can delete some bones from the metarig and it will still work. I deleted the facial rig portion and also the palm and fingers for my demo.

Here is the file as well. http://www.pasteall.org/blend/42287

I hope that helps.

Good luck!

#8

Another way I’ve found that works…
Apply the armature modifier to the mesh.
Turn on just the ORG bone layer of the rig.(#31, far right, bottom row)
Then add a new meta-rig and use vertex snap to snap it to the original bones of the deformed rig.
Delete the original rig and widget shapes.
Then generate the new rig, and parent the mesh using the existing vertex weights.

#9

Dan. That’s EXACTLY what I was looking for. Thank you so, SO much! This is fantastic.
Also thank you for the tutorial! Really straight to the point and easy to understand and I also want to encourage you to keep doing Youtube videos since you have a voice pretty much IDEAL for things like this.

Again, thank you!!

#10

I will test that method also! Thank you too, SkpFX!