•Why only one main control ?

Posted: **Wed Jan 11, 2012 9:05 pm**

Hi,

First of all I'd like to thank Animschool for sharing this great rig with the community. I haven't animated anything with it yet, but I've played around with it a bit and it looks fantastic !!!

One thing I don't understand though is why there is only one main controler ? On most rigs I've encountered, there was a World controler, and under that there was a walk controler, and under that one a fly controler (that had the pivot point around the hips or torso), and then there was the rest of the controlers. That way you move the character as a whole with several controlers which I found very usefull.

So I was wondering why Malcolm only had one main controler, since it's definately not a technical issue

Thanks again, and happy new year !!!

Posted: **Wed Jan 11, 2012 9:21 pm**

Thanks!

There are several controls like that.

ctlPlacement
ctlBodyPivot1
ctlBodyPivot1Gimbal
ctlBody
ctlBodyGimbal
ctlBodyPivot2

toutouffe wrote:Hi,

First of all I'd like to thank Animschool for sharing this great rig with the community. I haven't animated anything with it yet, but I've played around with it a bit and it looks fantastic !!!

One thing I don't understand though is why there is only one main controler ? On most rigs I've encountered, there was a World controler, and under that there was a walk controler, and under that one a fly controler (that had the pivot point around the hips or torso), and then there was the rest of the controlers. That way you move the character as a whole with several controlers which I found very usefull.

So I was wondering why Malcolm only had one main controler, since it's definately not a technical issue

Thanks again, and happy new year !!!

Posted: **Sat Jan 28, 2012 3:57 am**

Ok, but from what I see there is only ctlPlacement that moves the whole rig.

ctlBody doesn't move the IK feet or IK hands...
And I'm guessing it's the same for the other Body controls.

I was looking for several controls that would move the entire rig as one block.

The rigs I've been working with have a world controller that corresponds to the ctlPlacement for the Malcolm rig.

Then there is walk controller that is just under the world controller in the hierarchy and that moves everything except the world controller and has the same pivot point as the world controller.

Then there is a fly controller that is just under the walk controller but the pivot point is close to the waist.

Posted: **Sat Jan 28, 2012 1:09 pm**

Hi. I'm curious why those are used. I'm not familiar with workflows requiring those controls. Animating a duplicate of Placement only ensures you can't keep the ik arms and legs separate.

Posted: **Sun Jan 29, 2012 10:15 pm**

I guess the main usefullness it had in my exprience is this :

For the walk controller :

We often had walk cycles animated that we could import during the production. The walk controller is animated in opposition of the feet so they stay stuck on the ground and the character moves forward. So when the animator opens the scene (the layout uses the world controller to place the characters in the scene), he imports the walk cycle and the character stays in the right spot (the world controller isn't keyed in the walk cycle export).

For the fly controller :

If a character flies in the air or is porpelled in the air, it is easier to create the general movement of the body with a controller that has his pivot point around the hips (of course one could move the pivot point of the world to the hips, but if the character was walking and then propelled in the air, it gets complicated).

There are other examples where I used these extra controllers, but I can't remember them.

Basically, they're not essential and one can easily do without these extra controllers for sure, but I guess I got used to them and find them rather practical.
But I can just create a nurb curve and parent the rig to it to create one extra controller myself

, so it's really not a big issue.

Posted: **Wed Feb 15, 2012 6:58 pm**

toutouffe wrote:I guess the main usefullness it had in my exprience is this :

For the walk controller :

We often had walk cycles animated that we could import during the production. The walk controller is animated in opposition of the feet so they stay stuck on the ground and the character moves forward buy textbooks. So when the animator opens the scene (the layout uses the world controller to place the characters in the scene), he imports the walk cycle and the character stays in the right spot (the world controller isn't keyed in the walk cycle export).

For the fly controller :

If a character flies in the air or is porpelled in the air, it is easier to create the general movement of the body with a controller that has his pivot point around the hips (of course one could move the pivot point of the world to the hips, but if the character was walking and then propelled in the air, it gets complicated).

There are other examples where I used these extra controllers, but I can't remember them.

Basically, they're not essential and one can easily do without these extra controllers for sure, but I guess I got used to them and find them rather practical.
But I can just create a nurb curve and parent the rig to it to create one extra controller myself , so it's really not a big issue.

Ah...that clarifies some things things.

Why only one main control ?

Why only one main control ?

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Re: Why only one main control ?