Home Website Youtube GitHub

Is it possibe to add/edit the rig and UI

Support
#1

Hello everyone!

First of all I wanted to thank you for this amazing tool!

I have a few questions regarding some of the capabilities, probably there is a thread somewhere so I’d be happy if someone could point me to the answers I’ll be happy.

  1. Is it possible to edit Picker. (If the rig is in FK mode. the IK controls would turn grey or disappear.)
  2. Could I add IK to the fingers?
  3. Could I add another parent target to hand/legs IK

I guess, I mean how much of editing can be done to this system. (I mean it is amazing, but in some cases animators may have some random wishes to be addressed.)

Thank you again for making this amazing system

#2

(You should now have access to upload images.)

I don’t know if anyone made a full tutorial for the Anim Picker. Miquel did make a full tutorial for editing the Synoptic, but again, he doesn’t recommend using Synoptic anymore.

Editing the Anim Picker

  • First you can open the Anim Picker with mGear → Anim Picker → Anim Picker.
  • From there you can load a picker with “Select File”. There is a biped template in /mgear_X.X.X/anim_picker_samples/biped.pkr
  • Once you select it, click “Load Picker” and it will ask you to save it as a node. It will save a node in your scene that stores the picker information.
  • After you have a picker node in your scene, you can click mGear → Anim Picker → Edit Anim Picker
  • To edit, you can move them around. Double click on them to edit what they do. They can select a list of objects. Or run a custom script. You can change the color, size, title, etc.
  • There is a really great tool that lets you save the picker as a bunch of nurbs curves. You edit the curves, and then load them back into the picker. It’s the fastest way to layout a complex set of buttons. Sharing a couple of functions i wrote for anim picker
  • You can set a background image and an icon image. I know it supports .png files, but I don’t know if it supports anything else.
  • After you make changes, don’t forget to save your picker. It will save the changes to the picker node. You can also export to a file so you can use it as a template and load it in other characters.

Adding IK to the fingers

This will be up to you to either rig this as a POST script, or make a custom Shifter component. Or find existing Shifter components that do what you want. Nothing would really stop you from using 5 arm limbs in a hand rig. (But that’s a little weird.)

In general, Shifter is a rigging framework. You can do a lot with it. You are not constrained to using the example Biped template. But I find I like to change a lot with POST Python scripts afterwards, as the rig builds.

Adding parent targets

Yes this is done in the guide settings before you build the rig. For example in the arm_2jnt_01 component that is included in the Biped template sample rig. But you can also add space switches to ordinary control_01 components too:

You can add other controls in these slots:

  • IK Reference Array is for the IK controlls
  • UpV is for the pole vector control
  • Pin Elbow is the for the mid control of the limb.
    image
    image704×1752 99.7 KB
1 Like
#3

Hello,

Thank you for your reply.
In the animation picker, would it be possible to set “animation” between visibility of certain controls? (Like if IK controls are active de-activate FK controls and another way around).

#4

Have you tried this yet?

#5

Sorry… I just wanted to know whether the possibility is there.

I have another, new question, sorry…I’m rigging a biped using a template for bipeds in mGear for a project. The animator requested to make it so that Y is up, Z is forward and X is to the side. Currently I’m struggling to make it so on the arm. No matter how I rotate the gude if I add the bend in the elbow, the resut is not what I want. What can I do to get it to build correctly?

#6

It’s ok. But if you try, the limb should already toggle visibility on FK/IK by default. If it isn’t, then something might be wrong.

Changing the way the limb controllers orient might take a Post Python script, or duplicating the limb component (the code) and editing the code as a custom component. (It’s not a basic solution.) Rotating the guides will not really make a difference, because Shifter calculates the angle of the triangle of your guides, not the rotation.

The new mGear version has ways to change the orientation of the joints, but I don’t think it deals with the orientations of the controllers.

Some of the other components have ways of orienting using the settings in the guide. But I don’t think the limbs do.

(Anything is possible though, if you are comfortable scripting.)

#7

Thank you for your reply.

If I were to edit the component, could you direct me where I should edit?

#8

Maybe part of this video can be useful :slight_smile:

#9

Hello, do you mean in reguards to editing the animation picker?

#10

yes only for the anim_picker part

#11

Yeah, this gives a good idea about the picker :slight_smile:
Thank you

Erm, about the controls orientation though… Is there a good way to edit their orientation? It’s just that at the moment they are all over the place in terms of rotations… :thinking:

#12

Hi!

I´m setting up a picker and would like the buttons to appear when in FK or IK for example depending on the switch, has anybody done this before?

#13

The following free picker generator may be an alternative

DWPicker

  • Add functions to switch visibility layers programmatically dwpicker.current_namespace()
    • dwpicker.set_layer_visible(layername, visible=True):
    • dwpicker.toggle_layer_visibility(layername):
#14

DWPicker looks really nice, I need to test it.
For the moment just let you know that I am planning to update the animpicker soon.
If you have any ideas to improve it, please let me know.

4 Likes