Can I Rig And Animate A Model Made In Sketchup

January nine, 2007 Justin Chin

And so this weekend I came up with an idea on how to brand a "posing rig" in SketchUp. Crazy, I know. If you listen closely you can about hear the collective of 3D creative person everywhere are cringing.

What tin I say, if SketchUp wasn't already married to Google I'd marry her.

I'one thousand only going to do this for the vehicles in my volume, characters won't be rigged this way so don't go and freak out on me…yet.

This is the idea –

The posing rig is comprised of simple geometric shapes that frame the vehicle's important features, i.east. wheels and movable parts.
With conscientious organisation in the outliner I can affect the loftier poly geo nested underneath the posing rig in the outline hierarchy.
In addition by assigning the posing rig geometry to a specific layer I can plow information technology off and on at volition. Or even make information technology semi transparent .

The reasoning behind doing this:

I can manipulate the scene without having to render the heavy load of the full poly models.
I can quickly target the detail I desire to manipulate and rotate them with inside a prescribed axis.

Here is an example of the uncomplicated rig, and the high poly geo side past side:

(Click on the prototype and click on the "next" and "prev" buttons)

Yous tin see that the geometry in the scene on the left would exist much faster to piece of work in so the scene on the correct – and both exists in the same scene and file! I now I have a pick equally to what to come across on screen as well equally how to manipulate it.

The posing rig geo is made up of registration points, that allow for quick snapping of your tools. Here is an case of rotating the front wheel at information technology'southward aeroplane of rotation using the registration point:

In the case screens higher up you can run into that I selected the right wheel in the outliner, and focused the rotation tool on the registration mark at the top of the wheel. The shape of the elementary geo is a little funky because the turning angle on the beam is slanted. So I modeled the simple geo to reflect that angle. The orange and biscuit registration marks allow me to quickly see my intended rotation points.

It is important to note that the private pieces of the posing rig'due south geometry are not linked together similar an animation rig in Maya or Max would be. The pieces are just arranged geometry in space. Their only association to each other is how they are "grouped" inside the outliner's hierarchy.

Here'due south what the outliner looks like for the scene:

All of the individual pieces of the posing rig are given the "CN_" designation at the head of the name. These nodes stand for the simple geometry rig. This allows me to use the filter to expose them in the outliner. Selecting them in the outliner automatically selects them in the scene.

I arranged the posing rig geo in a hierarchical way that allows me to move the chassis of the vehicle and thus move everything under information technology, i.eastward. wheels, doors, interruption etc. with information technology. For case the door on the Tow Rig is nether; Tow_RIG>CN_ALL>CN_Body. Each door is at the same level under the CN_Body.

For those of yous who are animators, you'd know that this rig is only expert for forward animation (every bit opposed to Inverse Kinematics). Nothing new, and not the easiest style to animate, only it'll do for my needs. I'm posing non animating.

In SketchUp I associate the posing rig geo (not its grouping) with its ain layer. This layer is designated with a, "//" and the name of the vehicle, like in this image:

I use the, "//" designation so the layer will sort to the top of the list window for quick access. Obviously, past checking the layer on or off I tin can tin hide/testify the rig in the scene. In SketchUp y'all can as well create pages (a powerful camera/viewing tool) that will configure the scene to show the rig, or the full model. I toggle between the two to check the results of the rig poses.

Was that clear as mud?

Source: http://www.infinitemachine.com/homepage/archives/361

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