Blender Rig (and scripts)

So as promised, I'm uploading the source Blender rig file for everyone to use! The main purpose why this would be eventually released for public usage is to support mod makers creating new animations, however it's not quite ready for that at this point. 

Think of it as early access behind the scenes look! If you're a blender user, you might find this educational - after all, I personally could not find an example of a more advanced Blender-made rig than ours anywhere on the internet :}

For now I'm posting the download link and I'm going to briefly tell how to install and use it, and if you're having troubles with it, just ask me (Salireths) on our Discord server, I'll help you :}

When the time comes to create modding tutorials, I will explain better how all those systems work, so people don't have to rely on my personal assistance all the time!

RIG DOWNLOAD LINK:
https://seafile.dragonhive.net/f/99b496f206134046be00/?dl=1 

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How to install

First of all, when you download the zip and unpack it, you'll notice that there is a blend file as well as 3 script addons. To make proper and convenient usage of the rig you should install those addons!

To do that, open up File -> User Preferences

Then go to Add-ons tab and click on "Install Add-on from File..."

Select the paths to scripts from the extracted zip archive and install them. Then enable them! If they didn't automatically appear in your list, you can always serach for "TGOR" in the search box of the User Preferences window and it will bring them right up.

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How to use

So after enabling those scripts and loading up the scene, it might look quite unfamiliar even for an experienced blender user. Truth to be told - those scripts don't really add additional functionality, but they streamline and automate all the mundane repetitive and long to do tasks.

     Rig Selector Interface:

This part will allow you to hide and unhide layers of this rig effortlessly, as well as make selecting certain control bones easier. 

To show the UI you just need to click on this ckeckbox in the Properties side panel of 3d view.

And then this big overlay thing will appear (as well as some additional buttons below the checkbox, but those are for editing the interface - I won't be covering this now)

In this interface, clicking on various colored boxes will result in selecting the bone, while rectangles with text in them will work for hiding and unhiding the layers. Try it, its easy to understand what does what :}

Also, you can of course use the standard layer system, but its confusing to remember which layer does which, as there is no description. You can also use Layer Manager addon but again, its not as user friendly.

Also there seems to be a bug happening right now (the scripts are not yet finished and tested thoroughly), if you don't see the background image appearing in the rig UI, pressing "Set Background" button should help (it will still display an error, but it works).

      Character Transform Tools: 

This is just a few buttons for convenience that reside in the properties side panel as well as Rig Selector. Depending on the currently selected bone, it will show a few parameters and buttons, to, for example, match FK bones to IK chain, or change the transform space of a bone while keeping its transform. 

     Character Animation Tools

This is an addon that provides the list of characters in the scene (currently only one) and a list of all animations (actions) for that scene. The character can have an action assigned to it, it is like choosing what animation the character will play.

When creating a new animation, it is advised that an existing action is first copied, then modified.

There is also an export button, which can export available skeletal meshes and animations into UE4 ready format. Don't forget to set it's location where its going to export to first (the path must be absolute, not relative)!

There are also some bugs with this script that i didn't get around to fix yet,   so to work around that, if you want to export something - go to the Object Mode first!

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Conclusion

I know it doesn't look like much of a guide right now - but I currently don't really have time to explain everything, I gotta continue working on animations for the game first. 

However If you are indeed to pick it up and try to use this rig and those scripts, don't hesitate to ask me questions on our Discord server, I'll be glad to help!

Happy Blending!