In this tutorial, we’ll be talking about quickly creating rigs for humanoid characters in Cascadeur.
First of all, we’ll need a model in either FBX or DAE format.
This model should include a skeleton made up of joints and a mesh skinned to it.
I’ll be using several different models to show some of the various peculiarities you may encounter.
Unfortunately, in this tutorial I won’t be able to highlight each and every possible situation
but I’ll try my best to show the most common ones.
And if you will have any questions, you can ask them in the comments
or directly contact the Cascadeur development team - for example, through our official Discord channel
or you can consult the documentation on our website.
So, the model is loaded. Now, we need to switch to the Rigging Mode. Click this button.
A window with rigging instruments has appeared.
We’ll take a look at all these tools in the next tutorial.
For now, though, we won’t be needing most of them, as our characters are humanoid.
We can quickly create rigs for them using the Quick Rigging Tool.
After you click the Quick Rigging Tool button, a window will appear
with a list of your model’s joints and an image of a human silhouette.
You’ll need to drag the names of the joints to the corresponding body parts on this image.
However, for some widely used models, the program already has predefined rig settings.
And if you are using one of these models, you’ll see that all the points on the image are colored blue
and the fields at the right are filled as well.
In this case you’ll only have to click Create prototypes rig.
But if the points are grey, you’ll have to set appropriate values manually.
Select a joint from the list. This joint will also become highlighted in the Viewport.
Hold the Left Mouse Button and drag the joint’s name to the corresponding body part on the image.
After this, the point will be colored blue, and the name of the joint will appear in the table at the right.
This particular character has a lot of joints in the spine
but rig controllers will only be created for the pelvis, the belly and the chest
So what we need to do is to pick from the list the joints that are best suited for creating these controllers.
To check how the mesh would react, select the joints in the Viewport and bend the character.
Don’t forget to press Ctrl + Z to return the joints to their original positions.
It would seem that this joint is not very well suited for creating a controller for the belly
Bending the next joint looks better and we'll be using it instead
And this joint would not have be a suitable option. It's placed too high.
Choose the joint depending on the features of your model
The character should look as convincing as possible when the belly and the chest are bent
For example, if we use these joints, it’s obvious right away that there’s virtually no bending in the middle
a character like this would be inconvenient to control, and the poses won’t look very good.
These joints, on the other hand, should produce a better result.
Next, we’ll set joints for the neck and the head.
If your character has joints for parts of the face, don’t use them!
We should select the ‘main’ joint which controls the rotation of the head as a whole.
But there are also other possible cases: your model might have less joints than there are points on the image.
This cat guy has a back made up of only two joints, and no neck at all
This is not a problem, though, as you can simply assign the joints that you have
and leave some of the points on the image grey.
You don’t have to set up every point to generate a rig - only the ones in the arms.
But when not every point on the image is set up
his means the AutoPosing tool won’t work for this character.
You’ll only be able to pose your character using standard controllers.
For arms and legs, it is sufficientto only assign the joints for one of the sides only.
Fingers should be set up for the same side.
This character only has two joint chains for the fingers:
one for the thumb and another for all other fingers combined.
I’ll simply assign this second chain to the middle finger.
he fact that some of the finger chains have been left unfilled won’t affect physics simulations and AutoPosing.
Now we need to set the joints for the arm and the leg on the other side.
We can simply mirror them.
But first, we should check how the sides of the character’s limbs are marked.
This character has the right side marked as _r and the left as _l.
We’ll have to enter the mark for the side we’ve set joint for to the Original field.
The mark for the other side goes to the other field.
Now we’ll need to click the Create mirror object button
Now, the points on the other side will be colored as well.
The same goes for this character.
This time, I’ll be doing the left side, so the mark for the left should go to the Original field.
On this model, the left side is designated as _L and the right is _R.
There are no fingers on this character.
Now that all of the points are set, we can proceed to generate prototypes for the rig.
In the Viewport window, prototype rig elements for the character should appear.
While you are in the Rigging Mode, you cannot control the character with the controllers you create.
To test these controllers, you’ll have to switch to the animation mode
This way you can easily switch between modes and update your rig at any time Using the Quick Rigging Tool is usually enough to get a fully working rigWe, however, will be looking at some additional nuances.
You can change side and the position for any of the box controllers.
It wouldn't effect the way the rig looks
and would only serve the purpose of visual convinience
You can also adjust position for some of the controllers
For example the character's head would be easier to control
if the direction controller would be placed somewher around the nose
The points for this character's hands are not placed too well
Both points ended up in the same location.
For the hands, it is convenient to place the points at the bases of the index and the pinky finger.
The rigid body should be facing the pinky.
Try to place the points in the same way as for standard models.
Placing the points like this improves the work of the AutoPosing tool.
Now we need to apply the same kind of changes to the second arm.
To do this, we’ll need to mirror the arm.
Select the rig elements for the second arm by double-clicking them.
Delete the selected elements.
Open the Mirror Group tab
Mirroring from the Quick Rigging Tool won’t work here, as we’ve manually altered the positions of the points.
First, we need to set the mirroring plane.
To see which exact plane would fit in our case
it can be convenient to look at the manipulator arrows in the Global mode.
The blue arrow is the Z axis.
The green arrow is the Y axis.
We’d also need to set up the marking for the left and right side.
Now, click the Create Mirror Object
Some models include dedicated twist joints.
These joints are used to improve the behavior of the mesh when certain body parts are rotated.
Select the twist joint, turn on the Only Box Controller option and create a rig element.
Then, select the newly created box and the joint to which the twist joint should be linked.
Open the Main Actions tab
and click the Add button for the twist joint.
Currently, Cascadeur can only work with twist joints that don't have the next joints as their child
A twist joint automatically rotates a little when the joint linked to it is rotated.
You can also create additional rig elements.
This character, for example, has joints for controlling the jaw.
The jaw does not need its own physical elements (rigid bodies)
but we can create a box controller for it.
Turn on the Only box controllers option
then select the joint at the jaw
then click the Add rig element button.
Finally, you can adjust the sizes and masses of the Rigid Bodies.
These Rigid Bodies are represented as blue ellipsoids
and they control the character’s physical behavior.
On the Proto union behavior you can change the values for the Mass and Width_rigid_body parameters.
When you create a rig using the Quick Rigging Tool
the masses for the Rigid Bodies are by default assigned values standard for an average human’s body parts.
In this tutorial we won’t be examining all of the instruments for rigging
moreover, you probably won’t need them if you create your rig using the Quick Rigging Tool.
And for the final important note:
once you’ve finished creating rig elements, you can save your rig using the Create JSON button.
Later, you can use this JSON to quickly import the rig.
The JSON file also stores the pose to which you’ve applied the elements of the rig.
So don’t alter the character’s pose before you rig them
Later, however, when you import a JSON file, you can apply it to any pose and even to an animation
To do this, disable the With T-pose option.