The Rigging Menu
The Animation Menu holds items required for rigging objects and characters.
In the Rigging UI layout, it is located on the right controller, on the left side of the touchpad (HTC Vive) or thumb-stick (Oculus Rift), and is indicated by the following icon:
The Rigging Menu contains the following items:
Create Joints Tool
This tool allows creating new joints, either as a new skeleton or by adding new joints to the currently selected skeleton.
You can also use it to move the existing joints in your skeleton by dragging them.Unlike other tools such as Move or Rotate, this tool will only select joints and not other objects.
To use the tool to create a new root joint, just click with the controller trigger where you want the root joint to be placed.
To add joints to an existing skeleton, select a joint first before clicking in empty space. The new joint will become a child of the selected joint.
Orient Joint Tool
This tool automatically rotates joint to face their child joints. In this way, the child joints positional difference will be only one axis (x, y, or z). You can open the tool settings by selecting the wrench icon in the top-right corner to change the details of how the tool functions.
Connect Joints and Disconnect Joints
To connect two joints, select first the joint that should become the child, then the joint that should become the parent, and then select the Connect Joints operation in the menu.
Mirror Joints and Remove Joints
To mirror a joint, select the joint and then select the Mirror Joints operation in the menu. Use the wrench icon in the top-left corner to bring up the Tool Options. In the Tool Options you can set the details of the mirroring process, such as the mirror axis.
Re-Root Skeleton
To change which joint of the skeleton is the root joint, select the joint which you want to be the new root and then click the “Reroot Skeleton” icon in the rigging menu.
IK Handle Tool
The IK Handle Tool creates new inverse-kinematics systems.
Activate the IK Handle Tool by clicking on the icon in the Rigging Menu.
With the tool activated, select first the end joint and then the joint from which the IK chain should start.
You can choose the details of the IK Handle in the Tool Options, which you can open by clicking on the wrench icon in the top-right corner of the tool icon.
Smooth Bind Skin
The Smooth Bind Skin tool binds a polygon mesh to a skeleton.
Select both the polygon mesh and the root joint of the skeleton and then click the Smooth Bind Skin icon in the rigging menu.
Details on the binding can be chosen in the Tool Options, which can be open by clicking the wrench icon in the top right corner of the tool icon.
Paint Skin Weights Tools
The Paint Skin Weights tool allows setting the effect that individual joints (also called “influences”) have on the individual vertices of the mesh.
For details on how to use the tool, please see the following video:
Mirror Skin Weights
To mirror skin weights from one side of the mesh to the other side, select the mesh and then click the Mirror Skin Weights icon in the rigging menu.
To set the details of the mirroring process (such as which plane is used as mirror) open the Tool Setting by clicking on the wrench icon in the top-right corner of the tool icon.
Constraints
To create constraints, select first the target controller object, then the joint to be controlled, and then click on the respective constraint icon in the rigging menu.