Colossus - Rigging

Yeah rigging! (false enthusiasm)
CAT rigging rules - Screw creating bones from scratch, and screw manipulating the Biped

I did make a rig with bones from scratch

CAT rigging is the way to go!

CAT rigging is nearly fun!  It is a lot more logical to use and has improved functionality over other methods.  In a way it is a lot hard to go wrong, and needs less effort.  You can also layer animation sets - which has untold uses.

I have working low poly version which is rigged and moves in engine.  Here it is greyed out so I can
"re-fill" it with updated & detailed objects

The way I am going to rig is by splitting my colossus into multiple objects/groups.  These can then be assigned wholly to any bone in the rig - which is convenient as my model is "rigid" - each part will move separately and the joints are synthetic.  I was hoping to add more parts (like vines) which can also be rigged as muscle/fat and should wobble if I get round to it.   Anyhow, by splitting it into different object it means in a way the envelopes are massively simplified - If I only add a single bone to an object it will move fully attached to that bone.

Here I have my "parts" layer visible, with different types nested in folders within this

It is a massive pity the flow between 3DS Max and Zbrush isn't as practical as I would like - there are many little things like shared UV space doesn't work (have to offset instance of UV islands), world location of objects, temperamental scale issues and the like.  To do this I will need to go between these applications many times.

Through polygroups in Zbrush you can split object and elements easily
Here I only want to work on one or two of the ledges for example - I'd then use array in 3DS max to finalize.

For the above example I can use radial symmetry in Zbrush and work each ledge at the same time - then change the symmetry/arrray count to change the ones I work on to add variety.  In the end I only want one or two to save UV space.  PS this object is a "bracelet" or some sort of limb bracing.

My plan for today is to get the links working for each object - making sure I have every object where I need it and a mirror in Zbrush to texture & tweak.  I can carry on using my low poly mesh to create cut-scenes and animation in UDK, which I will spend tomorrow or another day on soon.  I got the walk-cycle in UDK a while ago and need to learn more about triggering animations in Kismet.