thong rig

I spent today on the rig for the thong model. Not too many problems here, though the model needed adjusting slightly so that the rig from the previous model could fit. Painting weights was not a problem this time. In fact I'm glad I had the opportunity to do it again, as it has completely cleared up any uncertainties I had before about what I was doing wrong. I have the workflow nailed and once the penny dropped I encountered no issues I couldn't solve.

The butt clench however proved to be a bit more of a problem than I first thought. Skin clusters can be difficult to control when it comes to parenting the control object to the root controller. Origonally I had two objects controlling the respective cheeks which were then in turn controlled by a master butt control. I ultimately had to ditch this, and resort to grouping the butt clusters together, and linking the scale x factor to a new attribute on the butt control. This provides the necissary butt clench, and the butt geometery itself doesn't deform when moving the root controller. However, this has also meant that the clench is entirely linear, and does not clench to account for any angles other than the standing pose. I don't think this should be a problem as this is probably only going to be used when hes standing straight anyway. I might try and work something out that might be a bit more diverse tomorrow, but until then here's a quick playblast of the control.