Hello !
I’m a beginner in rigging.
Here is it, I want to create a rig where you can have a control of the shape of the legs and/or arms during animation. I found that you can do this by creating clusters, but I didn’t find how to do it exactly and how to connect it with the Mgear rig. To sum up, I want to do something like the picture below. If you have any idea of how to do it, I would gladly take any advice !
Thank you very much for your time
Hi Elvira,
You don’t need clusters. Some of the Shifter components already have this feature built right into the limb rig.
The mGear Shifter biped template uses the basic leg_2jnt_01. It does not have this feature.
Instead, try out leg_2jnt_freeTangents_01 and arm_2jnt_freeTangents_01. They let you bend the upper and lower limb, as well as shape your knee and elbow with tangent controls.
Hi Chris !
Thank you very much !
I tried it and it worked well, it was exactly what I wanted, thank you again for you time.
Hello again !
I tried to use leg_2jnt_freeTangents_01, but I’m not sure that I did it in the right way because I don’t have the same thing. I posted here the screen. I added the leg_2jnt_freeTangents_01 in my guide line before building the rig, throught the Guide Manager, is this the right way to do it ?
Thank you for your time
Hi Elvira,
Correct me if I am wrong in saying, but it looks like you have another component on top of the leg_2jnt_freeTangents_01 component. Depending on what you are trying to achieve, you probably do not need that extra component. What @chrislesage was giving an example of was purely just the leg_2jnt_freeTangents_01 component. By default the controller (tangent controller) is turned off, so if you have not changed or moved around were your attributes live, you can look on your global control and there should be an attribute called “Tangent vis”. That should be what you are looking for.
A side note, is that with the other leg or arm components, you can check the setting “Add extra tweak control” and depending on the amount of joints you have chosen to add, you can get a control per joint basically. It will not have that tangent control, rather a more per joint level of control, but thought it would be worth letting you know that the option exists there too!
Hope that you come right!
Hi Jascha!
Thank you for you message, and I see what you’re saying. But I think I’m missing something, or not totally understanding. How can I have the leg_2jnt_freeTangents_01 component instead of the basic leg_2jnt_01 ? Like do I have to build and combine myself the guide ? Because I used to use the Biped template. Because, in fact, what I don’t understand is how to bring the leg_2jnt_freeTangents_01 component in my rig/guide line.
Thank you for the side note too !
Yes you have to build and combine your own guide. The template is just an example. You are free to adjust it as you wish.
And yes, you can use the Guide Manager to make the limb. And yes you can start from the biped template as a starting point, and change what’s there.
Other than that, I can’t really tell what went wrong from your screenshot.
Can you explain what you mean when you say “guide line”? What does “line” refer to?
Hello !
Thank you so much ! I did it and it worked very well, exactly how it should.
I have only one last thing to say, I found the attribut Tangent vis but only on ArmUI_L0_ctl Channel Box, I didn’t find the attribut for the Leg Controler. So I had to go into the Attribut Editor, in the “Object Display” categorie, and broke the connection so I can turn on the Visibility node. It’s the only way I found to display the controllers of the bend. I don’t know if there is an other way.
Oh and sorry, I meant the Guide group in the outline.
Thank you very much for your answers and helps !
When you make a new leg guide, you will have to define your “UI Host”. This is the controller where you will find the attributes to turn on the visibility, or switch IK/FK.
I recommend you put them on the LegUI_L0_ctl. But you can put them anywhere you like. If the Leg UI guide was parented under the leg, there is a chance it got deleted when you deleted your old leg. You can make a new one out of a Control_01 and call it “LegUI”. But you can call it anything. It’s just so it matches the old version, and works with the Synoptic, etc.
If you don’t specify a control, it will probably default to putting it on the world_ctl.
Ahh Ok, I get it ! Thank you very much Chris !
