Rigging a hand. What the *beep* is going on here!!!???

[Morne]

Hi all

So supposedly some companies selling 3D models claims they are there to save you time since you can just buy models already rigged etc. ready for use. I geuss they don't do ANY quality control and I end up having to fix the crap I bought. So where is the time saved!

Case in point. I'm trying to fix this crap rigging and just can't figure out what is going on.

Here is my thumb:


Here is the envelope clearly showing that not all vertices (which should be red) ar enclosed withing the envelope. Asif it has soft selection on or something.


Here are the settings (which I've tried changing but the "soft selection" issue still there.


As a result, the thumb gets buggered (goes flat) when bent. (Also happens at the higher bone of the thumb)



I would really appreciate some urgent solution to this problem. Anybody can please give me a solution!!!!

This is one of those "freaking URGENT" things.

Regards,
Morne

[MoonDoggie]

It looks like they have a dummy linked to maybe an IK controller on the end of the thumb, try manipulating the dummy at the end, though I doubt this is it. You'll have to manually fix the envelopes if that doesn't work, just up the influence so you envelope more veritices at the bottom of the thumb. Rigging isn't easy, it's pretty monotonous. Good luck.

[Morne]

It looks like they have a dummy linked to maybe an IK controller on the end of the thumb, try manipulating the dummy at the end, though I doubt this is it. You'll have to manually fix the envelopes if that doesn't work, just up the influence so you envelope more veritices at the bottom of the thumb. Rigging isn't easy, it's pretty monotonous. Good luck.

This is the thing. I've already doubled the influence, but it doesn't seem to do anything

[stevesideas]

Looks to me like the pivot point of where the thumb is bending is completly in the wrong position. It should be much further foreward at the crease where the thumb joint is. I dont use character studio, but when I rig using normal bones, you have the choice to select the vertices for that control bone and assign particular weights to them. You just need to assign 100% control weights to those vertices foreward of the pivot point...obviously reducing those weights as it comes closer to the pivot point itself.

[AJ Jefferies]

From your screen shots it's behaving exactly as it 'should'.

There's only so far you can get with envelopes, they are really just the starting phase of skinning a character. Once you've set up your envelopes you need to bake that data onto the vertices, the next step to correcting the weighting is to paint the values of each bone's influence. Even then, that will not give you perfect results & you will need to assign deformers (joint angle/morph angle...etc) to correct problem areas.

Unfortunately rigging/skinning is a laborious task.

So to solve your current issue, I would strongly advise baking the envelope data onto the verts & then painting/assigning the weights manually to correct the problem area.

[Sascha Selent]

What about the parent-envelope?

Hi.

I would say: What´s about the parent envelope? I think this will also influence the thumb´s vertices and if the vertices share influence of two envelopes selecting one envelope cannot show only reds.

Select both envelopes and examine their overlapping.

Are you beginner or expert in rigging?

Is the rigging part of the bought product, or ist it just a mesh that you have to rig? I don´t think there is anything to blame on the mesh.

And I also don´t think you can solve this freaking urgent - as AJ 23 wrote: "Unfortunately rigging/skinning is a laborious task."

Sascha

[Morne]

Is the rigging part of the bought product, or ist it just a mesh that you have to rig? I don´t think there is anything to blame on the mesh.

Sascha

it is a "fully-rigged" character that I purchased. All you need to do is animate....ya right! If all you want the character to do is walk then sure its fine to "just animate"
I'll look into selecting both envelopes at the same time...

[joconnell]

It looks like the place the thumb is pivoting from is wrong - if you put the last bone further up towards the outside of the thumb (the side the nail is on) rather than in the middle you'll get a better result. It's like if you were doing a leg, you'd get similar issues if you place the bone for the lower leg starting right in the middle of the leg - it'd need to be moved out front so that the bone is pivoting from the kneecap and not in the middle of the leg. This will help keep the volume of the thumb correct.