19.0

78 AutoRigger and CMotion
Position the wrist next to the cuinks. Six joints are located because this is where the fingers will be
generated later. To locate the right joint, right-click on the wrist and select the right joint from the list that appears
(…Hand_con+). Now we just have to adjust the fingers and the head and our rig will be ready to be bound to the
character’s mesh.
Binding the Rig to the Character’s Mesh
Before you start binding the rig to the mesh it would certainly be a good idea to save your Project. After doing so,
make sure that the Character object is selected in the Object Manager, i.e. that the rig is selected. In the Attribute
Manager, switch to the Binding tab.
This will again change the appearance of the rig in the Viewport. It will again be made up of joints and bones.
Double-check the position of the bones and joints before getting started. The Binding tab contains an inclusion field
(Objects). Simply drag the polygon objects body and eyes from the Object Manager into this field. If you need to
place multiple objects into this field you can do so by either dragging each object individually or by using the Object
field’s Start Pick Session function (click on the arrow in the white circle or right-click on Object field). Note: Do not
click and release. This will display the selected object‘s attributes and the Bind function‘s Object field will temporarily
be hidden. If this happens, select the character object anew.
Note: Do not place the Subdivision Surfaces object into the Object field.
This more-or-less completes the binding of the rig to the character’s mesh. However, before we move on to the
Animation menu where we will actually move our character, we still have to complete one more important step.
Don’t forget that the rig that we just bound to our character’s mesh is much more complex than it looks. Numerous
bones, Null objects and Controllers are needed in order to make the rig behave correctly when animated. These have
already been generated automatically by Cinema4D but are not visible. These components are actually irrelevant for
the person(s) creating the animation.
Important for the animators are the Controllers. These Controllers represent virtual strings of a marionette – which
our character de-facto is. Hence, we only need these Controllers to be visible. Too many elements in the Project would
clutter up the view and slow your workflow.
You can modify the visible state of the rig’s components in the Attribute Manager’s Display tab. Select the Character
object in the Object Manager and switch to the Attribute Manager’s Display tab. Here you will find several options for
displaying the rig’s components. The Viewport options affect the character’s rig in the Viewport and the Managers
options define how the character’s rig is displayed in the Object Manager. First, select Controllers from the Manager
menu’s Object Manager setting. Now only these Controllers will be visible in the Object Manager, i.e. the objects
that are used to control the character.