Also the skeleton upVector constraint on the feet get in the way if you want
to free the legs from the IK controller. It would be great to have that
operator behave like a nomal constraint with a mute or blend option.
This is not a bug but the rig is very fragile if someone hits reset actor.
The volume controls are pretty bad. They lack the necessary upvectors and
direction constraints to work properly (fixable but I usually avoid them).
The quat spine is great but very tricky to match with an actual joint chain
(if you need to accurately transfer data). It's doable but not for the
faint of heart.
The biped guide or rather the symmetry constraint would have a bad habit of
snapping out of place if you save and reload a scene. Usually you can set
up constraints or a pose clip to pin things down but still annoying.
The forearm roll division usually needs fixing. You'll sometimes get a
flipping problem when you twist to a certain degree. They've added a control
to fix this but the generated rig starts with the wrong setting.
There are more but that's what comes to mind and just to repeat maybe some
of these have been addressed already.
On Tue, Apr 1, 2008 at 1:21 AM, John Clark <john.clark23(at)ntlworld.com>
wrote:
> Very interesting. I agree with you that it seems a little dated and (again
> like you) I'm naturally inclined to use something that gets you along way
> there out of the box and provides some common standard, but what are the
> quirks and anomolies that you mention?
> I think the interesting thing about the xsi rig is that its never recieved
> a single tweak (that I'm aware of) since its first release ages ago. I was
> begining to wonder whether thats because nobody uses it in production so
> there was no great clamour to develop it. Or perhaps its just that rigging
> is one of those things that people just like to do themselves. We've
> invested huge ammount of time at work (sony) on rigs and supporting tech and
> I'm not convinced that the results are that much better than any other 3rd
> party rig out there except that its ours!
>
> cheers
>
> John
>
>
>
> On Mon, Mar 31, 2008 at 9:07 PM, David Barosin <dbarosin(at)gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > I think the XSI rig is a good starting point for many situations. We've
> > built up a couple mocap pipelines using the character toolkit as a launching
> > point. The animators are happy because the don't have to get familiar with
> > a new rig and the toolset is decent enough to not want to rewrite the entire
> > thing. It's also nice to know that the rigging tools are standard with
> > every seat of XSI so if you find yourself freelancing at different companies
> > you aren't ham-stringed by not having a proprietary (or third party) rig.
> >
> > The rig itself is a bit dated compared to some of the more recent
> > rigging tricks I've seen and there are a couple minor quirks, oddities, and
> > anomalies that you learn about about along the way. Overall though it's a
> > lot easier than having to roll your own. Another plus is that MOTOR seems
> > to prefer the XSI rig structure.
> >
> >
> >
> > On Mon, Mar 31, 2008 at 3:31 PM, John Clark <john.clark23(at)ntlworld.com>
> > wrote:
> >
> > > From the little I've played with it the 3d quaker rig feels very nice.
> > > Certainly worth having a close look at. (btw the tutorials are easily the
> > > best I've seen for XSI)
> > > I'm interested tho', what is it about xsi's own rig builder and rig
> > > that people don't like? We use Maya at work but at home I have XSI and I
> > > find both 3d quakers and xsi's own rig fine for the bits and bobs I do for
> > > myself. If pressed I'd pick the 3d quakers rig.But the xsi biped seems
> > > fine too so I'm presuming that there's some terrible weaknesses in it that
> > > only becomes apparent in some larger production. Anyone have any strong
> > > feelings about it one way or the other, or experience with it in production?
> > >
> > > cheers
> > >
> > > John
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > On Mon, Mar 31, 2008 at 5:58 PM, phil harbath <
> > > phil.harbath(at)jamination.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > > I have not being able to use the auto-rigger in production. It
> > > > has really nice features but I could never get a workable
> > > > rig from the guide. Something is always out of place. I really
> > > > haven't tried terrible hard because I have been in a rush.
> > > > If someone came out with one that worked I would gladly pay
> > > > good cash for it:)
> > > >
> > > > Phil
> > > > ----- Original Message -----
> > > > From: "Frank Lenhard" <franky(at)ixdream.com>
> > > > To: "Stefan Andersson" <sanders3d(at)gmail.com>
> > > > Cc: "xsi" <XSI(at)Softimage.COM>
> > > > Sent: Monday, March 31, 2008 4:44 AM
> > > > Subject: Re: automated character rig
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > > as i told you before, i got one in developement, and i also
> > > > offered
> > > > > before to rig a char with it, so you can check it out.
> > > > >
> > > > > as i said its in developement, early beta i would say. currently
> > > > it only
> > > > > supports bipeds. but 4 legged creatures are a must, because i
> > > > gonna
> > > > > need them myself.
> > > > >
> > > > > the autorigger dvd, which i own, is a cool thing. however charbel
> > > > > himself gives you a disclaimer, stating that the autoriger is not
> > > > > production proven and should be seen as a base to develope on.
> > > > >
> > > > > ciao
> > > > > franky
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > Monday, March 31, 2008, 9:38:40 AM, you wrote:
> > > > >
> > > > > SA> Hi All,
> > > > >
> > > > > SA> I was wondering (and I have asked this before) if any one
> > > > knows of a
> > > > > SA> solution or a person who have written a automated character
> > > > rigging
> > > > > SA> system that can be purchased?
> > > > >
> > > > > SA> Or... any word on the street if the CAT system will ever make
> > > > it's way
> > > > > SA> into XSI? :)
> > > > >
> > > > > SA> After this summer I will be in need for such system, and I
> > > > don't have
> > > > > SA> the time or the knowledge to write one myself.
> > > > >
> > > > > SA> regards
> > > > > SA> stefan andersson
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > SA> --
> > > > > SA> __________________________________________
> > > > > SA> Pixel Abuser (at) http://www.swiss.se/
> > > > > SA> Blog (at) http://sanders3d.blogspot.com/
> > > > > SA> Web (at) http://sanders3d.googlepages.com/
> > > > > SA> work e.mail: stefan [at] swiss.se
> > > > > SA> ---
> > > > > SA> Unsubscribe? Mail Majordomo(at)Softimage.COM with the following
> > > > text in
> > > > > body:
> > > > > SA> unsubscribe xsi
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > ---
> > > > > Unsubscribe? Mail Majordomo(at)Softimage.COM with the following text
> > > > in body:
> > > > > unsubscribe xsi
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > --
> > > > > No virus found in this incoming message.
> > > > > Checked by AVG.
> > > > > Version: 7.5.519 / Virus Database: 269.22.1/1349 - Release Date:
> > > > 3/29/2008
> > > > > 5:02 PM
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > >
> > > > ---
> > > > Unsubscribe? Mail Majordomo(at)Softimage.COM with the following text in
> > > > body:
> > > > unsubscribe xsi
> > > >
> > >
> > >
> >
>
------=_Part_19109_5572158.1207055481991
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<br>
It's been a while so I can't say if all these issues are still current some have probably been fixed by now. <br><br>From what I remember the leg's chain roots are not created in the ideal direction for the rotation plane. I usually run a 'align root to first bone' to fix it. <br>
<br>Also the skeleton upVector constraint on the feet get in the way if you want to free the legs from the IK controller. It would be great to have that operator behave like a nomal constraint with a mute or blend option. <br>
<br>This is not a bug but the rig is very fragile if someone hits reset actor. <br><br>The volume controls are pretty bad. They lack the necessary upvectors and direction constraints to work properly (fixable but I usually avoid them).<br>
<br>The quat spine is great but very tricky to match with an actual joint chain (if you need to accurately transfer data). It's doable but not for the faint of heart.<br><br>The biped guide or rather the symmetry constraint would have a bad habit of snapping out of place if you save and reload a scene. Usually you can set up constraints or a pose clip to pin things down but still annoying. <br>
<br>The forearm roll division usually needs fixing. You'll sometimes get a flipping problem when you twist to a certain degree. They've added a control to fix this but the generated rig starts with the wrong setting. <br>
<br>There are more but that's what comes to mind and just to repeat maybe some of these have been addressed already. <br><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Apr 1, 2008 at 1:21 AM, John Clark <<a href="mailto:john.clark23(at)ntlworld.com">john.clark23(at)ntlworld.com</a>> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">Very interesting. I agree with you that it seems a little dated and (again like you) I'm naturally inclined to use something that gets you along way there out of the box and provides some common standard, but what are the quirks and anomolies that you mention? <br>
I think the interesting thing about the xsi rig is that its never recieved a single tweak (that I'm aware of) since its first release ages ago. I was begining to wonder whether thats because nobody uses it in production so there was no great clamour to develop it. Or perhaps its just that rigging is one of those things that people just like to do themselves. We've invested huge ammount of time at work (sony) on rigs and supporting tech and I'm not convinced that the results are that much better than any other 3rd party rig out there except that its ours!<br>
<br>cheers<br><font color="#888888"><br>John</font><div><div></div><div class="Wj3C7c"><br><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Mar 31, 2008 at 9:07 PM, David Barosin <<a href="mailto:dbarosin(at)gmail.com" target="_blank">dbarosin(at)gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
I think the XSI rig is a good starting point for many situations. We've built up a couple mocap pipelines using the character toolkit as a launching point. The animators are happy because the don't have to get familiar with a new rig and the toolset is decent enough to not want to rewrite the entire thing. It's also nice to know that the rigging tools are standard with every seat of XSI so if you find yourself freelancing at different companies you aren't ham-stringed by not having a proprietary (or third party) rig.<br>
<br>The rig itself is a bit dated compared to some of the more recent rigging tricks I've seen and there are a couple minor quirks, oddities, and anomalies that you learn about about along the way. Overall though it's a lot easier than having to roll your own. Another plus is that MOTOR seems to prefer the XSI rig structure. <br>
<div><div></div><div>
<br><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Mar 31, 2008 at 3:31 PM, John Clark <<a href="mailto:john.clark23(at)ntlworld.com" target="_blank">john.clark23(at)ntlworld.com</a>> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
