AutoRigger Showcase | Root and Arm Module
Updated: May 21, 2021
I wanted to show an updated version of my personal autorigger; it's quite different from the one on my reel, as I've learned a LOT since then. Writing tools for Capital Games EA has been an incredible opportunity to learn and I am very grateful to be in a team that nurtures the growth of my skillset.
I made this UI using PyQt by the way. My previous autorigger's UI was hardcoded using pyMEL commands. That was terrible.
I made the video very short, so here's a few bits I didn't talk about:
The tool organizes new nodes into the root groups automatically, so it needs the root to be created before anything else. If there isn't a root in the scene and the user tries to create an object, it will throw a custom error at them and call them a fool.
The tool also needs the object name text field to be filled out with something before an rig is created. Otherwise it will throw an error at the user and call them a fool.
You CAN make only FK or only IK rigs (but why tho). If you happen to check both IK and FK option boxes the tool automatically creates a switch control.
The "Elbow Pull" attribute is only created when the Twist option box is checked.
If you close the tool and reopen it, it will reload whatever object names you had. You don't lose any work and you can keep working on your rig!
I'd like to go into a bit more detail on the last one.
The root groups look something like this:
Every time a rig object is created, it's name is added under "data_grp". Whenever the tool UI is initialized, it looks for whatever is under the data_grp and adds it to the "Scene Objects" list widget on the right side of the UI.
Very simple trick but it works!
Stay tuned for more upcoming modules!
-Fernanda