Building The New Rig (Part 1 of 2)

As some of you might know, most 3D models (that need animating) often have an extra set of objects that control various parts of the body. They're there to make animating/posing easier and generally speed up the process. And as you also might know, the base of my characters are ripped from a game, so that didn't come with any of those helping objects. So for the first few months of my 3D career, I had to select the bones and rotate them manually. Which is a real pain in specific situations where you want an hand or foot to stay in the same position, just as we do when we walk or lean on something.

Eventually, I made my own, which learned me a fair deal about IK and rigging in general. Throughout the years, I occasionally made an update to it. The first had those helper objects, the second gained objects that controlled the fingers (which were wired so that you could make a fist in seconds.  The third removed some of the triangles on the body, which what originally was making the bellies look... odd. And I've stuck with that version for the longest, cause it did everything I needed it to.

However, I felt it was time to update it yet again. Mainly because I wanted give two characters files to a really good friend of mine, but he had some issues with the way the model was (and how it was rigged). And those were fair complaints, so I turned that into a full-blown remake. The update features;

• Removing triangles as much as possible (so not just the torso)
• Merging the bodyparts together
• Body morphs (which is easy to add more of)
• Improved the rigging of the feet, no more deformed feet
• Added more control objects to improve posing speed

Not that much of an improvement when you read it like this, but it helps quite a bit much. The merging of the body allows me to adjust calves in the same way as the hips (calves were separate objects before). The removal of triangles makes them more resilient to editing and smoother overall. Body morphs saves a lot of effort and time sculpting the body.

Overall, it's a QoL update that simply improves on the already decent rig that existed. Next part will be about the facial improvements. I'm still working on it and the various improvements that it brings, but hopefully it'll be enough to completely remove AG3 (the game the models are based off of, still use it to create the faces) from the equation. So that if I eventually share the files to the public, they won't have to rely on the program.