Grow Rig System Beta

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Grow RigAuthor: Chris Covelli
I'd like to share a little plugin I've been developing over the past year or so, in between jobs. I call it The Grow Rig System, and it's basically a simple auto rigger with a character mesh already attached. Sort of a combination of a rigging tool and a modeling tool.

Here's a demo video.

It's a very simple tool, definitely a work in progress. I've certainly seen more advanced rig builders out there, but I feel the ideas my system centers around are very strong. There are many features I have in mind to add to this system but I must admit my scripting and rigging skills are limited. Any feedback would be a great help, but what I'm really hoping for are any riggers and scripters who would be up for working with me to improve and add to it.


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AceMastermind
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Re: Grow Rig System Beta

Post by AceMastermind » 16 Feb 2011, 21:07

Vargas0001 wrote:Ok I did find a version of the proportional rigs that were saved out from 7.01. I replaced the whole .rar file with a new one that has the 7.01 models...
Thank you Chris, I just tested it in Softimage Mod Tool 7.5 and it worked great. :)

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Vargas0001
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Re: Grow Rig System Beta

Post by Vargas0001 » 16 Feb 2011, 21:20

Great to hear its working. Thanks for catching that little hiccup for me.
-Chris Covelli
http://www.kylevargas.net

Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.

shadow_ex_
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Re: Grow Rig System Beta

Post by shadow_ex_ » 17 Feb 2011, 17:23

this is very nice work^^
thanks a lot for sharing it :)

Lord Futzi Voldemort
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Re: Grow Rig System Beta

Post by Lord Futzi Voldemort » 21 Feb 2011, 13:17

I really, really like the plugin, the concept and the work behind it.
But maybe you should consider to change the music of the demovideo. If you have spoken text, vocal music in the background, particularly this one, ist very distracting... ;)

Achim
I'm now part of an endangered species...

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Mootzoid
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Re: Grow Rig System Beta

Post by Mootzoid » 22 Feb 2011, 10:48

Hey Chris, some amazing tool you created there, great work :ymapplause:

xowgax
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Re: Grow Rig System Beta

Post by xowgax » 20 Mar 2011, 06:39

Mind = Blown.
Awesome stuff, can't wait to play with it!

Ghassan
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Re: Grow Rig System Beta

Post by Ghassan » 12 Apr 2011, 11:59

1 million thanks for you , its really great plugin and very helpfull.

please i have 2 qouations ;

if i will add or remove polygons is it ok , or it will make problems ?

and if i want to add more deformers or muscles ( ice shrink wrap ) is it possibole ?

thank you again for your great work :ymapplause:

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Vargas0001
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Re: Grow Rig System Beta

Post by Vargas0001 » 12 Apr 2011, 18:28

Hi Ghassan,

Adding or removing polys or changing the topology in general can be done without losing the envelope or shapes, as long as you follow certain steps. I would duplicate the original, freeze the duplicate, make your topology changes, and then use GATOR to get it back on the rig. If the rig is in a different position then the default, you might get some double deformation on your new mesh. In that case, I would follow steps 1-8 of the "Adding Your Own Elements" section of the User Guide.

Pretty much the same thing for any extra deformers you want to add. I would add them to a duplicate of the original just ensure youre preserving the envelope and blendshape information.

Hope that helps!! :-D

-Chris
-Chris Covelli
http://www.kylevargas.net

Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.

Ghassan
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Re: Grow Rig System Beta

Post by Ghassan » 13 Apr 2011, 17:45

Thank you very much for your help , and big thanks for the plugin

Cryrid
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Re: Grow Rig System Beta

Post by Cryrid » 30 May 2011, 02:58

I finally got around to taking this thing for a spin, and so far I'm enjoying how easy and fast it is to use. Thanks for creating/sharing this thing.

I'm currently using it to make a Dwarf:
Image
Image
Last edited by Cryrid on 06 Jun 2011, 21:27, edited 1 time in total.

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Vargas0001
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Re: Grow Rig System Beta

Post by Vargas0001 » 30 May 2011, 19:29

Wow Cryrid! Awesome dwarf character so far! It makes me really happy to see someone's results from using Grow Rig.

Keep up the great work!!!

-Chris
-Chris Covelli
http://www.kylevargas.net

Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.

pl4sma
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Re: Grow Rig System Beta

Post by pl4sma » 13 Jun 2011, 15:19

Hey !

I am a game designer (who can also use some 3d software such as xsi/zbrush/sketchup)
And i completely love your plugin !
It's really great when you want to face only the minimum of technical aspects in 3D, perfect for me

I have been busy with Unity lately, and unfortunately Softimage and Unity aren't as friendly as Unity/Max or Unity/Maya
Animation from Softimage won't export easily over Unity
As i a understood you need a Shadow Rig, I don't really know what a Shadow Rig is, i just know we need one for Unity

I am pretty sure my ignorance will make thoses questions dumb, but oh well i have to give it a try:
So i was wondering if GrowRig had a ShadowRig ?
If no do you plan to add a ShadowRIg in it ?
If not is it easy to add a shadow rig to a character made with GrowRig ?

Here were my noobish questions, sorry for the trouble and thanks a lot for your work, it's awesome :)

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Vargas0001
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Re: Grow Rig System Beta

Post by Vargas0001 » 13 Jun 2011, 18:23

Hi pl4sma,

I'm really glad you like Grow Rig!!

I'm afraid I'm not too familiar with Unity, but a shadow rig is just a simple null hierarchy in which all the nulls are constrained to the respective bones of the "regular" rig. Basically this allows you to animate on whatever regular rig you have, and then plot that motion onto the shadow rig which you should be able to export out to game engines and other softwares.

Unfortunately, Grow Rig does not have a shadow rig option in this beta version, but it does sound pretty easy to implement for the next release ( coming soon, I promise :-P )

In the meantime, if you want to build one yourself, Softimage's own Biped Guide system has a shadow rig option when you create a rig from your guide so you can see how its built and just emulate that for your Grow Rig. In the Animate panel, go to Create/Character/Biped Guide. Next go to Create/Character/Rig from Biped Guide and the last tab of the ppg that opens up should be your shadow rig options. I'd pick Null Hierarchy for the type. You'll see it creates a separate model of nulls that are pose constrained to their corresponding bones.

Hope that helps!!

-Chris
-Chris Covelli
http://www.kylevargas.net

Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.

pl4sma
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Re: Grow Rig System Beta

Post by pl4sma » 13 Jun 2011, 19:06

wow, thanks for the fast reply !

I tried what you suggested, i got this shadow rig created, so the idea would be to associate this shadow skeleton to the skeleton generated by grow rig if i understood well, or recreate the shadow rig from scratch and align it with the actual one

MMMh i think you overestimated my xsi skills :), i am really not good enough technically, i don't even know how i would parent the shadow rig to the grow rig skeleton

I was thinking about learning Gear and use their shadow rig option

Damn if you add the shadow rig option to your next release it would be completely awesome =)

Thanks again for your fast reply !

pl4sma
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Re: Grow Rig System Beta

Post by pl4sma » 13 Jun 2011, 19:09

btw if you need someone to beta test a shadow rig and give you some feedback over how it behave in unity, i am your man !

Nick3d
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Re: Grow Rig System Beta

Post by Nick3d » 12 Sep 2011, 23:10

Dude this is really amazing....I mean, this is a time saver, especially for prototyping a scene!

I still need to try to switch the base mesh with a custom one, but it seems quite easy...

Please keep working on that....gosh, I love XSI plugins :D

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