Layers, Bone Groups & Selection Sets
Armature layers are usually used to isolate bones. Rigify can take advantage of armature layer to generate extra features and the user interface for the final rig. Blender 2.79 can handle 32 separate layers for each armature. The armature layers are visualized under the armature tab. They are split in two separate groups of 16: The top row contains layers from 1 to 8 and from 9 to 16. The bottom row layers form 17 to 24 and form 25 to 32.
Rigify layers are displayed in a vertical layout inside their own separate panel named Rigify Layer Names.
- The first column shows the layer number.
- The second column is a display toggle.
- This toggle controls the armature layer visibility. It has the same effect of enabling/disabling the layer visibility from the top armature layers menu. It is just redrawn here for a simplicity.
- The third column sets a specific layer name to be used to build the rig UI of the final rig. If set, a button with the specified name will be created in the rig_ui to control the visibility of this specific armature layer. If layer contains at least one bone but its name field is empty, a button with no name will be created in the rig UI.
- The fourth column defines in which UI row the layer button will be created.
- This numbers define the layer ordering in the UI and will ignore the effective layer number. If two layer have the same row number their UI buttons will be created in the same row.
- The fifth column is a toggle for the selection set.
- If checked a selection set with that name will be created and associated to the final rig.
- The sixth column defines the Rigify Bone Grouping.
- If Rigify Bone Groups are set, the user can make the association between the bones on the layer and the specified bone group from the list. The controls on the final rig will inherit the bone grouping through this value.
- The seventh column displays – if set – the associated bone group name.
In order to use the Bone Groups in the Rigify Layer Names fields, Rigify Bone Groups must be set through the specific panel. Usually this panel is displayed just above Rigify Layer Names panel.
Rigify Bone Groups are used to define bone colors on the final rig. The top two rows of the Rigify Bone Groups panel are used to define the bone colors general behavior. Usually color themes use a gradient of colors to define the different bone states: default, selected and active. When multiple color themes are used in the same rig, identifying which bone is selected or active can be tricky since each color will have its corresponding state.
To override this behavior Rigify Bone Groups unifies the active and selected states with the same color. This is defined by two values:
Unified Selected/Active Colors
When this option is active adding a bone group in the list will always keep the colors consistent. When a color scheme is added as from a theme, the color scheme is loaded as is. Click on the Apply button to force the system to unify selected and active colors.
Selected/Active Colors
This two color fields define respectively Selected and Active colors. By default Rigify reads this colors from the theme defined by the user in the Blender preferences. This way the Selected/Active colors can always have a predictable and consistent behavior in the UI. The colors can be customized by clicking on the relative color field. To reset them to the Blender current theme value just click on the button with the update icon.
Bone Groups can be added and deleted as done in the general Bone Group panel by clicking on the + or -buttons. All Bone Groups can be deleted at once by clicking on the specials menu.
To add the predefined Rigify Default Bone Groups list click on Add Standard button.
To add a specific theme with its own color scheme, select it from the list and click on the Add From Theme button.
Advanced Rig Generation
Advanced Options Features
When Advanced Options are enabled, user will be able to:
- Generate more than one rig per scene.
- Generate a rig with a specific name.
- Update/Overwrite a specific rig.
Advanced Options Activation
Advanced Rig Generation Options are locked by default. Click on the Advanced Options button to enable. With Advanced Options enabled the panel will be updated displaying two main modes:
- Overwrite
- New
By default overwrite is selected. At this stage if you don’t touch anything in the UI the generate function will be invoked as is, meaning in fact that generating the rig now will create a new rig from the meta-rig if none is present in the scene, or overwrite the default one if you have already generated a rig from a meta-rig. For further information about the Rigify generate function look at basic usage section.
New Rig Mode
The New rig mode will let the user generate a new rig from the meta-rig regardless of an already generated rig is present in the scene. A specific name for the rig can be set by the user through the specific Rig Name text field. If no name is set, Rigify will generate an armature object named “rig” and a Python script named rig_ui.py.
Note
Keep in mind that along with the rig, Rigify generates also a rig_ui.py Python script which controls the UI in the 3D View. This Python script will be named accordingly with the specified rig name.
Overwrite Rig Mode
The Overwrite rig mode will let the user specify a target rig to be overwritten. If none is set Rigify will search and eventually overwrite an armature object named “rig” and a Python script named rig_ui.py