Shoulder rigging???
 

Hi

Can anyone help me with a good way to rig the shoulder area of a fairly low (about 3000 poly)character for use in-game?

Ive been trying to sort this out for about a month now and cant get smooth deformation when the arm is positioned stretched out in front (as if holding a gun or something) then from there, to raised above its head.... this causes all sorts of creasing of polys.
Ive tried a number of methods but cant seem to get the required effect :(

any ideas?

?
 

do you have weight maps on your obj?

I try not to use alot of weightmaps... from what ive seen, it's best not to use them around shoulder area as it gives better deformation.

Ive also found that 'helper' bones also give more control as well, although im not sure of how to properly set them up.

Also a collar bone and a shoulder blade bone are supposed to help the rotation as in real anatomy....

aaaaand....of course it could always be the geometry of the shoulder thats causing the problem, although ive been told by a few people that the geometry is ok. DOOOH!

Try this tutorial:

http://www.puffandlarkin.com/lightwa...ing/index.html

There are some samples and the result for shoulders and hip is nice for a low poly character.

That link is very usefull, although im not sure how the 'buffer' bones workthat are inside the arm bones?

I have however managed to finaly solve the shoulder stuff, and it seems to work fine now. :D

I was setting all the bones up pretty much in the right way, apart from not adding a helper bone between the shoulder and collar bone, and two bones in the upper arm. This solves the twisting of the mesh by rotating the helper bone as well as the arm bone. (well it seemed to be the case as far as i can tell)

Thanks for the help.