Rigify Human Alignment Tips
- Limbs: Keep the legs as straight as possible in the front view (Rigify human works better in predictable cases). Give the knee and the elbow a slight bend angle (Rigify needs to know where your knee/elbow is pointing).
- Torso: Keep the spine as straight as possible in the front view (Rigify human works better in predictable cases). The last bone of the spine is the head. By default, the next two bones (top to bottom) are considered the neck bones. It is suggested to keep the neck bones as aligned as possible while editing.
- Face: Positioning face bones can be tricky if you are not an expert in bone editing and they are almost useless if you plan to make facial animation through shape keys. Consider removing face features from your character if they aren’t really needed. If you don’t need the face all the face bones can be deleted. All the face bones are on the first armature layer by default. You can select them by displaying only bone layer 1, selecting all of its content and then deleting the bones in Edit Mode to correctly remove the face.
- If you want to scale all the face bones at once, consider scaling the face master bone in Pose Mode (see Pose Mode matching method). The face master bone is placed in the same position of the head bone. To select it easily, hide all other bone layers.
Pose Mode Matching (Basic)
Enter the meta-rig Pose Mode. Rotate, scale, and translate the bones in the correct position. When bones are in correct positions (always staying in Pose Mode) use Apply ‣ Apply Pose as Rest Pose.
Connected bones cannot be translated in Pose Mode. You can scale the parent bones to match the general length and then refine child bones scale. For more detailed information on armature modes
Edit Mode Matching (Advanced)
Some basic armature display setup is suggested before entering bone Edit Mode.
With the meta-rig selected, go in the Properties editor and click on the Object tab. Scroll down to the display panel and enable X-ray and under Maximum Draw Type selector select Wire. This way the bones will always be drawn in wireframe on top of your geometry.
Then, always in the Properties editor click on the Armatures tab and under display check the Axis checkbox. This way you the bones rotation axes will be displayed during the edit process.
Bone Positioning Guide
Face Bones
Start by identifying basic face landmarks to follow as guide for bones placement.
- Orange lines represent bones that should be placed in closed loops.
- Yellow lines represent bones whose position depends on surrounding bone loops.
- Red lines represent outer edge bones.
- Purple lines represent bridging bones used to cover deforming flesh.
The eyes-nose loop area is split in different parts identified by bone names. Follow the image to place the bones.
Tip
Brow Placement
Keeping aligned the mid bones in “brow”, “brow.b”, “lid.t”, “lid.t” and cheek will give better results after rig generation.
Also, the jaw-ear area is split in different parts identified by bone names. Follow the image to place the bones.
Tip
Jaw Placement
Try to place “ear.L” bone covering the part of the ear attached to the mandible (lower jaw). Do the same with temple bone trying to cover the part you don’t want to move with the jaw, this way you will also determine the jaw pivot position.
Warning
While placing the lip bones you should keep the opposite bone chains merged in the middle. Tearing the merge point apart may result in a misalignment of controls in the final rig.
After the main face bones are placed use the cheek bone to connect the eye-nose area to the jaw mouth area. Then do the same with the brow area. This process will automatically define face muscles compression areas.
Tip
Merge Points
The rig will generically work as its best if you keep the bone connected at their merge points.
Position the eye bones in the eye pivot point facing right toward the face on the Y axis.
Tip
Eye Pivot
If your eye has a spherical shape, you can define its pivot by entering Edit Mode and selecting two opposite vertices on the center meridian – or the opposite poles – and snapping the cursor to selection by pressing Snap ‣ Cursor to Selected. If your eye is a complete sphere and its location it’s not applied, then you can just use its center of mass.
Finally position the teeth bones on your teeth geometry and the tongue bone chain as described in the figure.
Tip
Tongue
The tongue will work better if the bones are aligned at the symmetry line.
Before generating the rig ensure the face master bone is facing upward.
Torso Bones
Start by identifying on your character basic torso zones to follow as guide for bones placement.
Head, chest and pelvis are rigid zones, so they require less bones. Having a good edge loop placement around zone boundaries on your model will help in having correct deformation after armature binding.
Starting from the side view, place the main spine bones trying to use one bone for the rigid areas and two for the flexible ones. In addition to the main spine, the torso is provided with additional pelvis bones (to oppose the leg bending), two breast controls and two shoulder bones.
Even if the pelvis bones does not appear in the final rig as controls, they will contribute to deformation.
Tip
Bone Placement
Try to keep the spine as centered as possible inside the mesh bounding volume, just apply a slight offset toward the back. In a similar way, consider the shoulder bones as general deformers; placing it too forward – where the collar bone should be – could cause undesired deformations.
Limbs Bones
While placing the arm bones try to start having a straight line that goes from the shoulder to the hand in both front and top view. After this is done just add a slight bend to the elbow. This can be easily done by going in the top view, entering armature Edit Mode and sliding the bone junction between forearm and upper_arm slightly toward the world’s Y axis.
For the leg you can follow a similar process. Start by aligning the leg bones creating a straight line from the hips to the ankle, then place the foot and the toe accordingly. Remember to add a slight bend to the knee. This can be easily done by going in the side view, entering armature Edit Mode and sliding the bone junction between thigh and shin slightly toward the world’s Y axis.
Finally align the heel bone by going in the front view and placing his head and tail to fill the foot size from side to side then, in the side view, align the bone at the point where the heel just touches the ground floor.
Note
From version 0.5 and above there is no more need of manual bone rolls alignment, the generate function will take care of that for you evaluating it from bend axis; just insert a slight bend in your limb and it’s done!
Fingers Bones
Start by placing, finger by finger, all the knocks in place.
Tip
Fingers Placement
An easy and effective method to do this operation is to select on the mesh the corresponding edge loop in Edit Mode and use the Cursor to Selection snap. Then you can snap the bone to the corresponding loop using the Selection to Cursor snap.
Finalize the positioning by taking care of bone rolls (the X axis is set as bend axis).
Tip
Bone Roll
If your character’s hand is placed like the above figures, finger axis alignment can be easily done by selecting all the bones of the single finger chain and recalculating the bone rolls Recalculate Roll ‣ Global +Z Axis.
Thumb may require more tweaking depending on your character’s mesh topology, usually Recalculate Roll ‣ Global +Y Axis is a good starting point.
When the fingers are in place proceed placing the palm bones.
Tip
Palm Placement
Try to keep palm bones’ heads at a little distance between each other. This distance is required for Rigify to define the palm controls hierarchy. Palm axis alignment can be easily done by selecting all the palm bones and recalculating the bone rolls Recalculate Roll ‣ Global +Z Axis