I’d like break down seven things which fall under unforgivable rigging rudeness. This list has been culled from the opinions of animators and friends in the industry, however some of this is personal preference so take it with a grain of salt.
Without further ceremony I present to you these seven unforgiveable rigging sins: THOU SHALT NOT…
Let he who is without rigging sin post the first angry comment….
1. Split Thy Transforms.
One that infuriates every time I encounter it: Translate controls in one object, and rotate controls in another object Thanks a lot, you’ve effectively doubled the amount of time it takes to pose the character.
When did consolidating your controls into one object become a bad idea? What possible excuse is there to split basic transformations into different objects? Consolidate the controls into as few objects as possible. Posing takes long enough without having to select three different objects to move one joint.
2. Leave Thine Mesh Selectable.
Boy do I hate this one. At no point should the animator ever be able to select the render mesh. Scratch that – at no point should anything be selectable except for animation controls.
This is such a basic step it boggles my mind how often it’s overlooked. Yes, the guts of the rig must be accessible for revisions, but put a switch on those guts and lock away everything that the animator doesn’t need! Have mercy!
3. Display Thine Guts.
When animating a scene, we hide things, we unhide things – sometimes we unhide all. And then what happens? Presto, scene gets littered with lattices, blend shapes, clusters, and all manner of trash.
Take it a click further and that mess becomes un-hideable! “So just hide all except mesh and curves” I hear you whine. WRONG, rig your engine under the hood, put that shit on a switch and make it wholly inaccessable to everyone except the riggers.
4. Limit Thine Controllers.
This is a miserable one – and I’ve fallen prey to thinking it’s a good idea too. Sure, limit the little finger bones to one degree of rotation or eliminate the scale channels from the shoulders – seems to make sense doesn’t it?
Truth is, the best method is having translate, rotate and scale active on almost every control object, and have each channel do exactly what it’s meant to do. Let the limits be determined by the style of the show, you can always lock stuff away later, but start with full, free range of motion. If I can’t rip the shoulder off the body and place it a mile away, then the rig sucks. Period.
5. Place Mouth Controllers Elsewhere From Thy Mouth.
This one is my personal annoyance but I cannot stand it when the jaw is controlled by something other than a bone! Opening the jaw with a blend shape? Are you on crack? The jawbone is a bone like any other!
Lip sync starts with a study of the jawbone movement. You wouldn’t make a blend shape to bend the elbow right? The jawbone is a bone. Christ!
6. Forsake Naming Conventions.
Naming Conventions. Use them. For fucks sake.
7. Create Too Many Controls.
Don’t make me come over there…
