Is mGear right for me?

[orbitalpunk]

Hi guys, I’m an animator and would like to start rigging my own characters. I have been trying to decide between mGear, AS and MRS. Ive narrowed it down to mGear and AS cause MRS documentation is so fragmented it makes my head spin.

I want to know if learning mGear is worth it for me or even possible. AS seems easier but I’m concerned about its possible limitations down the line. First i would only have 3-5 characters max in a shot at the same time so performance i not a big issues as i know mGear is faster but AS should be ok. What other use cases would mGear really be better at when talking about animating abilities on a single character? Something AS wouldn’t be able to do? Like better dynamics/secondary animation or better facial rigs for more expressive animation? What can mGear do that AS cant when just focusing on a single character from a animators point of view?

Also I dont know any scripting so this would be without scripting. Building a guide with a few controls was easy enough so far.

Lastly, i tried all the free rigs from this forum and i wonder why is it that i cant control both translation and rotation from a single wrist control when in IK? Translate will work but when i switch to rotation nothing happens. And it happens in all free rigs listed so its not a one off issue. Every other rig I’ve used from AS, MRS and my own assets from Animation Mentor all can rotate and translate from one hand/wrist control in IK so what am I missing?

Thanks for any input shared
Ive been trying to decide this on my own for 2 weeks and need to hear from people actually use mGear. Asking mentors at AM didnt help so i really tried before bothering you guys.
Thanks again.

[chrislesage]

@orbitalpunk

Lastly, i tried all the free rigs from this forum and i wonder why is it that i cant control both translation and rotation from a single wrist control when in IK?

That’s a checkbox setting on the arm guide that you can choose when you build your rig.

I don’t have too much to say. But I use both AS and mGear depending on the project. I find AS frustrating because it often has to be “just so” to make it build properly. And it’s so easy to get into a state where you can’t rebuild because of inscrutable MEL errors. So save some backups as you go. (I mean, that’s always a good idea.)

But mGear, personally I use a ton of scripting to change it up. If you are coming in with no scripting, you might find some limiting frustrations too. But I find it so much more flexible.

[AlexW]

As Chris says, this is an option in the arm component & like yourself, I always want trans & rot with one control:

I looked at other auto rig builders & it came down to Advanced skeleton & Mgear. Both Mgear & AS have LOADS of tools to learn, so it’s a time investment either way. When you click that build button you’ll get a rig, but the prep required beforehand to understand how your auto-rigger works, it’s tools & capabilities will mean you can get everything you need out of that rig & more importantly solve any issues that arise (they will).

Every model is different, every animators requirements are different. You will most likely hit an issue with any of your choices, so for me it’s about support & how often things are being updated.

I chose Mgear in the end because of the wealth of tutorials (even if you have to dig around) the active developers, & the community that’s very quick to help & answer questions.

This last one is massive, because with any auto-rigger you’re gonna hit a blocker that you can’t solve without a helpful community. I have not found the AS community to be as active ( but perhaps that’s just my own experience).

Mgear has great spring solvers for dynamics/secondary animation, but it may not be what you’re after exactly. Asking if any auto-rigger will do whatever you may want it for in the future is like asking how long’s a piece of string. What I would suggest is defining what you want from an auto rigger now, what you plan to use in the future & then test both options based on those specifics.

After that, you’ve got to just make a call & jump in. Arguably with any choice you have the opportunity to push the system forward if you’re vocal on what you want & can help solve issues that can aid others ( when possible) as well.

[abrahams]

3-5 advanced skeleton characters in a scene is a lot. Performance is important if you want animators to have a good time.

AS facial system is nice. Just a few hours to build a pretty decent facial rig. That’s the biggest thing missing from mGear IMO.

[liudger]

Advanced Skeleton (AS) and mGear are both useful tools in big productions, but they have their own strengths and weaknesses. AS is generally quicker to set up a full character with a face, but mGear has more customization options and can be adjusted to meet specific needs. Additionally, mGear is easier to rebuild and modify during a production, and it allows multiple people to work on the same rig by allowing parts of the rig to be split up. If you’re working on a rig for yourself, AS may be a good choice, but for larger productions, mGear may be the better option. That being said, these are just my personal thoughts on the matter.

edit: I use CGM tools (part of MRS) as they have quite a few handy things in there that can be used with any other auto rig. They use a hotbox for easy snapping in certain ways and to group things in specific ways. And it has a nice attribute editor than can edit multiple things. So learning the tools in CGM ToolBox is quite handy. I haven’t used the rig builder MRS. We have a hotbox menu for the animation part of mGear, maybe we should extend this also to rigging part?