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Frankensteining mGear rig parts into an existing Maya rig

Rigging General
#1

I am the Rigging lead for a small student team and was wondering about if combining an mGear rig with an existing rig would cause any potential issues?

I have built three robust rigs from the ground up over the past six months and my team wants me to rebuild all of them in mGear to potentially save time in the production pipeline

in my experience of experimenting with mGear, I have to admit that the rigs are extremely powerful for the amount of time you spend building it - almost insultingly quick :^)

Is it potentially harmful for production if you would use lets say an Mgear setup from the waist up (legs and COG with a global setup) and then a traditional or salvaged rig from the spine up?

If anyone can share their experiences or opinions, it would be greatly appreciated since it breaks my heart to be throwing away an entire rig if it was possible to keep the parts that were perfect…

Also if possible to try and give some examples or proof that could possibly soothe the stress of my lecturer and project manager

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#2

Is it potentially harmful for production

If you do it well, no. If you do it poorly… possibly. :man_shrugging:

But, traditional rigging suffers from the difficulty of handling quick changes. For example, in one of my older style rigs, the client wants the foot ball pivot moved forward a bit. In a build-process rig like mGear, that is just an easy move in the guide and rebuild. In a traditional rig, it requires a bit of rig foot surgery and delicate reconnections.

But if your rig is locked down in proportions, there is no reason not to merge together two rigs. I do that sometimes to import and reuse face templates or a skirt rig template that I reuse often.

If this was a production where you planned on having 12 more characters rigged, I’d say use mGear so your future rigs all match. But if this is a one-time project, do what you need to get done.

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#3

That’s really helpful Info! Thanks for the feedback Chris! If anyone else also has an opinion feel free to tell me

#4

Almost every rig I made with mGear had something custom built into it. Mostly via Post Build scripts. That way I still keep the flexibility Chris mentioned.
Also rigging with mGear and rigging by hand do not produce different types of rigs. It is still just a bunch of nodes connected together. mGear does come with some custom nodes but nothing is stopping you from using them when you rig by hand.

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#5

Oh and another tip I can give you, don’t get attached to your work. If something doesn’t fit and you have time to redo it in a clean and better way then throw it away.

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#6

“In rigging, you must kill your darlings.”
–Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch

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#7

It really breaks my heart, but I have to agree with those points you make
It’s better to rebuild something from scratch and addressing the mistakes you made the first time rather than polishing a turd