What's the most efficient way to make a character rig with turnaround positions, bones/kinematics, & substitutions?

I’m working on creating full character rigs in Harmony, and have essentially finished the default 3/4 view for the four main characters. However, I’m also looking to create corresponding versions of each one for different angles (Front, side, behind, and 3/4 behind), and am unsure of whether the easiest route would be to combine all these angles into one rig or to create individual rigs for each.

I’ve watched some of this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iuo1y11dBoA
and it seems that this is possible, but there are several factors that I’m still unsure about. First, would I be able to create unique bone & kinematic setups for each angle? Second, would I be able to switch between angles for individual body parts while leaving the rest unaltered (Mainly the head)? Finally, since I want to create several drawing substitutions for certain elements like hands and especially the mouth, what’s the best way to keep track of those in the substitution library?

I would watch both of these courses courtesy of Toon Boom:

https://learn.toonboom.com/courses/rigging-1

https://learn.toonboom.com/courses/rigging-2

Hey Behonkiss!

There’s multiple ways where you could do a rig. Even in studios, you will see as many different ways as there are studios. The links to the rigging tutorials above are a great way to start.

Here are a couple of ways that studios like to go about it:

  • One rig, all views are contained within it as drawings. (One rig to rule them all!)
  • Two rigs. One that contains the front, quarter front and side views as drawings. A second one that contains the quarter back and back views as drawings.
  • One rig per view
  • One rig with the full turnaround in the rig as drawings, but with heads in separate groups (tends to get crowded in just one drawing, especially with lipsync and blinks)
  • One rig with all views, but views are created with keyframes by shifting and offsetting certain assets
  • Etc…

In the rigging 2 tutorial of the learn channel, I’ve used the first method. Only two views in it, but you would do the same for the subsequent views. I suggest you check it out if you’re doing multiple views.

Hope this helps!

Thank you. Very helpful.