Troubling with simple rigging and adding a mesh object to an existing mesh object

Artistic Support Animation and Rigging
1

Hello There,

Below are two images from a blend that I have been working on.
I d-loaded this character from BlendSwap and it was originally a panda bear but I have tried to make it look like a puppy.
I have changed the colors and tried to add a tail that I sculpted from a mesh cube. I have also tried to add a VERY basic rig so that I can move the head. Ultimately I would also like to animate the tail as well.

I am having two issues:

  1. The first is shown in the first photo on the left. I have the mesh parented to the rig and when I try to move the bone to deform the head it works, however the ears, nose, and the pupils of the eyes do not come with it. I am not sure how to join the mesh that makes up the eyes and ears to the rest of the head. In Edit mode I can select these areas by pressing “L” (that was how I changed the colors), When I select the object in Object Mode everything will come with it.
    Also, when I select the root bone of the rig (the farthest in the back) the entire dog comes too. What to do?

  2. I have the tail that I sculpted set as a child of the rest of the dog mesh object. However, when I go into wireframe mode. the tail disappears! Why? I have tried to attach a bone to move the tail, but this does not work. My hope is that I have one object (the dog) that I can rotate, wag the tail, and move the head as if it was barking.

I know that the solution may be very simple, but I am only a beginner and working with an object that I did not create.
I am a psychologist and not an animator and need to use this object in a a video. Any help whatsoever is greatly appreciated.

PS - I have tried to attach the compressed blend but have been unable. I have a separate thread addressing this question.
If you are willing to help, you can download the blend from a link from my dropbox account here:

or, I can also email the blend to you. Thank you in advance for any and all help!!

-B

Screen shot 2013-01-13 at 8.56.58 PM.png699×601 84.4 KB

Screen shot 2013-01-13 at 8.58.05 PM.png769×648 58.6 KB

2

If you need any more information please let me know!

3

I think that maybe you are looking for something called weight painting. Take a look around youtube or google is probably a good start. It shouldn’t take too long before you are rigging all sorts of things once you get the basics down! Good luck o/

4

Hi Troubled,

Will weight painting address the first issue, the second issue, or possible both?
Thanks again,

B

5

Woah!
So after only briefly mucking around with weight painting, this is exactly what I need to solve problem 1.
This feature is so incredibly impressive!

I am still confused as to why I am unable to see the tail that I have sculpted in Problem 2 though.
I am also unable to parent it to a bone. Is there a solution? Can I integrate it into the mesh of the body?

6

There is only one way to find out :wink: Have you found any good tutorials yet by chance? Just trying to get you to try learn a few things on your own first :slight_smile:

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

7

Yeah,
I have found a good tutorial on youtube:

I still am not sure what is going on with the tail. I have watched some tutorials on rigging, but nothing covers adding to an existing mesh.

Thanks for all of your help so far troubled