Motion capture and rigging help, BEGINNER

[Anonymous]

I am quite new to the rigging and motion capture field and would appreciate all the help I can get!

I am in a group project where we plan on using motion capture on our main character.
The issue is that this character has different proportions to a regular human.
What precautions should I take or be wary of?

We also plan on having facial animation, but we don't want the motion capture to affect any of the facial features. Are there ways to do so? Should the face rig be connected to the base rig or should it be a separate loose component?
Pardon if my questions seem lacking, I really want to learn, but not the best finding the proper tutorials for my questions.

[gautham.chandran47 · Accepted solution]

It really breaks down to what kind of rig you are using. While transferring the mocap data to your custom rig, if there are any facial controls which are not directly connected to the head controller will be stayed back while the character moves. In most case, this won't be an issue.

For the proportion, the FIK system will take care of most body proportion issues if you're keeping the controllers in IK. According to the results, you may wanna edit the animation after retargeting.

All the best for your project 

[Anonymous]

What is FIK ? So sorry for my lack of knowledge! I am a bit unsure what you mean, but that's mostly due to english not being my first language and this being very new.  I thank you so much for your reply! It means more to me than I ever can express in words! Thank you so much!

[gautham.chandran47 · Accepted solution]

FIK means Fullbody Inverse Kinematics. Which basically allows IK to work with the whole body. As you can see in MotionBuilder and Maya Quick Rigs; if it's in "full body" controller then the whole body reacts to every movement you make. Like, if you pull the hand too much than intended then the body will follow the hand as would happen in real life. 

[Anonymous]

So, essentially I can have a facial rig connected to the head joint without it being affected by thge motion capture data?

[gautham.chandran47 · Accepted solution]

Yes. But make sure all the facial joints and controls are under the neck joint ( or head control if you're using Maya Quick Rig ) or else it will mess the face up!

[Anonymous]

Thank you! I also recently found out I should have the same amount of joints in my rig as the mocap skeleton has 

Main issue is that most of the IK foot rigging does not have that extra joint in the foot, nor do they have just one clavical(?) joint on the chest, but rather two places closer to the shoulders.

Following these tutorials
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxogLUq1rd4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkKx9ijydjk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pj6TrmxhPew

Is there any way to rig as I am more used to or should I try to rig using the same amount of joints as the mocap skeleton has ?

[gautham.chandran47 · Accepted solution]

Even though it would be ideal but it's not mandatory to have exactly the same number of joints in the skeleton. One thing to keep in mind that your target rig should have all the necessary joints in the right place to mimic the source/mocap rig. It doesn't matter if the numbers don't match. you can see the ideal rig set up in the quick rig setup. 

[Anonymous]

Thank you  🙂 !!!!