Hello to all of you, I introduce myself my name is Carlo, for 2 days I have successfully installed “mgear_2.6.1.zip”.
I have a very big problem I can not understand, I did not find any tutorial that explains “step by step” how to build a “Rig” for a Woman mesh from “Zero”.
Can you help me? Is there any video tutorial on this topic?
Another thing that I did not understand “mgear” makes only the “rig” or even the “Paint Skin Weight”? Or do you use the Maya tool?
I have to be honest I have got to use “Advanced Skeleton”, before knowing “mgear” I must say that it is very simple to make the “biped” by default but complicated to get good deformations, I get problems on the “elbows” "knees “” Neck "etc.
I would like to know how “Mgear” behaves with the “Paint Skin Weight”?
I apologize for my English, I’m not a good “Rigger” I’m at my first experience with “Rig”.
I accept any advice on this.
Thank you all, I wish you Happy Holidays to all of you.
Carlo.
Hi Carlo,
There is the youtube channel with a few tutorials: https://www.youtube.com/c/mgearriggingframework/
The first videos of this playlist should be useful for you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjPzCBN5KB0&list=PL9LaIDCCDjfimQVcMdh0rG0MPabPG9FK-
Cheers,
Miquel
I would like to also assure you something mentioned in the (Rigging and Skinning) videos of the playlist Miquel told you about: I advise you to use “ngSkinTools”
it is waaay more better than the default Maya weight painting system (which has several logical issues like must locking each bone you painted its weight or else it will be ruined if you paint elsewhere …etc) ,ngSkinTools is very flexible & can overcome several technical issues that Maya default weight painting/skinning couldn’t… & it is free for non commercial usage but you will need to pay for it if you will use it commercially.
Also: don’t be shy to add as much (Blend shapes/joint-controlled-morphs) to add any tweaks or corrections you need, but ngSkinTools with mGear will make your rigging mission more fun than you can imagine.
Hi Carlo,
I am just learning mGear too. You will probably want to watch all of the Youtube videos in order, and experiment as you go. In some of the videos, Miquel doesn’t cover some of the topics until later videos.
For example, in the videos where you first learn about Gimmick Joints, you only learn how to create them. You don’t learn how to save and restore them in your rig, until a later video. So all of the videos are important.
As I learn mGear, I’m trying to write a guide that explains things as a big general overview: Tips for customizing mGear
(It is still very WIP.)
To answer your skinning question, the process looks like this a bit:
- Rig your guide rig, from a template, or from the components, one-by-one.
- Build the rig
- Test, delete the rig, rebuild the guide over and over.
- Build the rig.
- Skin your character, using whatever skinning tools you like best.
- Export your weights to external files using mGear -> Skinning -> Export Skin (or Python)
- In your guide, save POST Python scripts that load your weights from those files.
- Delete the rig. Edit the guide some more.
- Build the rig again. The POST script loads the weights.
- Edit the weights. Save them to the external files again.
- Your rig gets stronger every time you build.
Thx for your webpage about mGear workflow, one of my issues with mGear was the need to watch lots of videos & lots of personal experimentation , sometimes I look at Shifter components & am not sure each module what it will produce after build & if it can be used for a finger for example, or a leg of human or leg of animal, which one can be a limb of a zombie …etc
We need such a thing to be like Reference manual or even a mouse-over popup menu showing image for what the component/module look like … sorry if I talked out of topic above 
, just think how can mGear go more appealing.
I agree. I found it difficult at first to understand the whole context and overview.
I spent a couple of days just building individual modules to see how they behave. But it would be great to have more written documentation. This is a free and open source project, so I’m going to attempt to write more in the next few months. And hopefully some of the stuff I write can be added to the official documentation.
I just built my 2nd Shifter character this morning, and I am getting excited about the pipeline I’m building. But it took a lot of experimentation, like you said.
Hi guys and thank you for your answers. I apologized if I did not answer before but I have family health problems. (My Daddy has Parkinson’s and I have to watch him)
I perfectly agree with you Chris, for example my English is not perfect and I find it hard to understand Miquel’s videos, they are certainly very well done but I can not follow them because I do not understand perfectly what he says, I repeat I do not understand english.
As Chris says I prefere something written with “screen” so you can follow Step by Step.
But I understand that this is a very long job to accomplish.
Or it would be even better for someone who knows the Plugin very well to make a video with Step by Step steps without sound or with the minimum necessary.
For example, time ago I started with “Skeleton Advanced” and I must say the truth I managed to make a rig to perfection seeing his videos that are very simple.
My problem today with Skeleton is that I can not do a good “Skinning” for this reason I uninstalled Skeleton and I installed “mgear_2.6.1.zip”.
But today I have not been able to achieve anything good.
Surely it is I who do not understand.
Sorry for my long explanation and I hope you can understand what I mean.
I ask a question, in the forum there is no person speaking Italian?
Thanks and Greetings to all
Hello,
Just a quick heads-up:
I am reading this thread and taking notes 
Please keep it coming!
Thanks,
Miquel
Hello everyone
With Miquel we know that documentation is important so this is why later this year a newer documentation will be available. I am working on it. Keep the comments coming as Miquel said, we are listening.
Cheers
Jerome