Brad Noble - Skeleton Rig History

Version 2.72 updated 12/10/08

Assigning a prefix/character name in the master control now forces the use of either a space of underscore after the prefix.
Added the ability for the prefix/character name to be reflected in the rig's layers.
Added an option to hide/show the IK arm flip angle controls and whether they're displayed with the auto-hide IK/FK controls feature.
The resizing script now correctly puts created bones and helpers in layers that have been renamed.
Fixed a problem where the left FK thigh control was incorrectly rotated 180 degrees on its X axis.
Fixed an issue the clavicle bones X and Y scales going to 254 when merged into a scene with inches as system units.
Fixed an issue where the extra objects list was only sorting the names of the names in the list, not the actual array of objects themselves (if you know what I mean)

Version 2.71 updated 20/07/08

Fixed an issue with the pelvis bone scaling incorrectly when the master control is scaled.
Fixed a problem in the resizing script when saving out dimensions on rigs with a prefix applied.

Version 2.7 updated 10/05/08

Load/Save rig dimensions function added to reszing script.
Save dimensions script created for saving the dimensions of previous rig versions. Allows you to upgrade a rig.
FK knees and elbows to have an extra axis of rotation and can bend backwards.
Soft IK extension parameters added on all limbs.
Added scalable clavicles.
Added an auto update option on auto hide IK/FK controls.
Softer arm and leg curves.
The master control can be linked to another object and scaling of the master control will work properly with the whole rig.
Selection buttons added for clavicle offsets in resizing script.
Fixed issue with head bone not moving properly with the head control in some cases.
Fixed the result of IK snaps being used on IK controls that have link controllers on them.
Fixed a hand unlocking bug.
Fixed the bad result of mirroring of bones when master control is not at 100% scale.
Mirroring limbs in the resizing script also mirrors the bones' display properties.
Fixed the issue of the squash/stretch affects head value being 100 times what it should have been.
Removed user properties comments.
Lowered the minimum limit of bone sizes in resizing script.
Widened hand resizing dialog for wider knuckle bias spinners.
Put extra object options on master control to a separate rollout so it can be rolled up and hidden.
Greyed out "remove" and "remove all" buttons on extra object controls when list is empty.

Version 2.57 updated 16/11/07

Added an attribute on the head called "Head rotation affects neck". This acts like the "Leaning rotation" attribute on the chest whereby when set to 0 the head will rotate on the spot.
The "Leaning rotation" attribute has been renamed to "Chest rotation affects spine" to match convention of the above addition.
Auto-hide IK/FK control function now automatically updates when you scrub the time slider. Note: Turning on "Auto-hide IK/FK controls" will now slowdown the rig's playback speed very slightly.
Fixed an issue with the pelvis bone scaling to an incorrect size when the rig is merged into a scene with different unit measurements that would show up when the squash/stretch multiplier was turned off.

Version 2.56 updated 29/08/07

Fixed problem with chest influence on arms' keyframe values being 100 times what they should be.
Allowed for the selection of multiple objects at the same time to be added as extra character objects.
Made the "Launch resizing script" button look for the exact version of the script that corresponds to the version of the rig.

Version 2.55 updated 9/08/07

Better head and chest rotation setup allows for more flexible use of rotation and chest controllers. Controllers on the head and chest can now be copied/instanced to or changed (eg. to a noise controller) without breaking the spine/neck connections.
Head and chest now compatible with 3ds max 9 animation layers.
Finger splays changed to a more realistic angle (ie. fingers splay when out straight but twist when bent down).
Reorganised layers related to the rig to a more compact number.
IK arm flip axes are now part of the autohiding/unhiding function (as they don't have their own layer any more).
Added a query to choose whether the skin pose of the rig is overwritten when closing the resizing script.
Fixed a problem with hands with offsets dislocating when being locked/unlocked.
Fixed an issue with the hip's rotation affecting the chest position - when not set to affect it - when in/out offset amounts are applied to the spine.

Version 2.5 updated 13/05/07

Changed the way the rig stores its objects as nodes which greatly improves the performance speed.
Added an attribute on the chest called "leaning rotation". Turning this down to zero makes the chest control object stay where it is as it's being rotated.
Added a hand offset ability in the resizing script.
Added knuckle biases on the fingers in the resizing script allowing you to fine tune the lengths of individual finger bones.
Changed the way fattening and thinning of the bones occurs in the spine and neck to better account for neighbouring objects' squash and stretch.
Added a button in the master control modifier properties to select all of the rig's objects.
Added a button in the master control modifier properties to delete the entire rig from the scene.
Added a function in the master control modifier properties to add and remove extra objects to and from the rig. These extra objects are included in the tools that add prefixes to the rig, select the rig and delete it from the scene.
Offsetting the chest and head in/out no longer thins the neck bones as if they're being stretched.
Finally added a credit to Paul Neale in the resizing script for the copious amounts of great advice he's given me and other 3ds max riggers out there.

Version 2.26 updated 26/03/07

Fixed a bug in the resizing script when mirroring legs with less than 3 twist bones.

Version 2.25 updated 23/03/07

Added attributes to control whether the squash and stretch affects the chest and pelvis bones.
Added a shortcut button on the hand controls to quickly select the relevant arm control. Will alternate selection between the IK arm control and FK upper arm control depending on that arm's IK blend amount.
Fixed an issue with rig objects not being scaled correctly when merging the rig into a scene with a different unit setup.
Fixed the assume skin pose button to work correctly when the rig has less than five fingers on a hand.
Altered the thigh and hip setup to work correctly with the skin morph modifier.
Fixed a problem with the inherit foot/hip curve showing only waist control rotation rather than hip control rotation.
All bones are now set as non-renderable.
Added a 64-bit version of the rig (thanks once again to Grant Adam).

Version 2.21 updated 4/02/07

The resizing script now checks whether the scale of the rig is at 100%. If not, it will ask if you wish to reset it to 100% before continuing. Note: the rig now doesn't have to be at 100% scale to resize properly.
Fixed a strange bug that caused an error when using xref scene to bring in a scene with the rig in it.
Fixed the resizing script to correctly adjust the number of twisting bones when the scale of the master control object is not at 100%.
Changed the copyright symbol used for rig info in the master control to (c) as it was causing an error with some non-western alphabet versions of 3ds max.
Switched length, width and height labels for the arms and legs to make clearer sense of what dimensions are being adjusted.

Version 2.2 updated 14/01/07

Altered the resizing script to run off object node references contained within the rig instead of the object's names. This means that the resizing script is now no longer name dependant; it only needs to have the rig's master control object selected before runnning it.
Added the ability - within the resizing script - to determine the number of fingers the rig has.
Added a button on the master control object to launch the resizing script.
Added a button on the master control object to put the rig in its skin pose. This skin pose is updated as the rig's current pose when the resizing script is closed.
Added a text entry field to add a prefix to the names of all objects of the rig.
Switched length and height labels for the hands to make clearer sense of what dimension is being adjusted.
Fixed a small bug with the IK snap on the legs.

Version 2.0 updated 18/12/06

Version 2... Phew! Where do I begin?
Added an auto-hide feature to automatically hide and unhide the relevant limb controls depending on what the IK blend amount is.
Added the ability to bend the limbs into curves, with options for how much bend, locking the middle of the curve at the elbow/knee and the inheriting of curve tangents from adjacent body parts (ie. hips, shoulders, feet and hands).
Added the ability to define the number of twisting bones for the arms, legs, neck and spine in the resizing script.
Rebuilt the neck and spine controls to more easily move the chest and head into specific poses.
Added the ability to move the hips independantly from the chest.
Added the ability to move the chest independantly from the head.
Fixed the twist bones of the upper arms to only flip at one point: inside the clavicle. This also removed the need for upper arm up-vector controls.
Added the ability to adjust the rotation of the middle joint of each finger, giving the ability to create newly stored poses, such as "pen grip".
Consolidated heel and toe roll sliders into one attribute.
Added a foot swivel attribute.
Reorganised the foot manipulators to better take advantage of the above attribute additions.
Squash/stretch and curve amount spinners have higher limits than their accompanying sliders, to allow the typing in of higher values.
Added the ability to define how much the head is affected by the neck's squash/stretch.
Chest bone now fattens/thins when squashed/stretched.

Version 1.81 updated 05/11/06

Fixed a small bug relating to using the scale tool to uniformly scale the rig.
The resizing script will now correctly resize the master control dummy if it has been scaled.
Added installation notes in the readme file to explain how to properly install and run the resizing script.

Version 1.8 updated 18/04/06

Made resizing script a macroscript.
Added leg offset value to resizing script.
Resizing script now resizes dummies and other rig objects based on averages rather than absolute values. This means that it scales better at smaller sizes especially.
Found that 3dsmax unceremoniously crashes when (*deep breath*) selecting an object with an empty rotation list controller while in rotate mode with the coordinate system set to gimbal. Empty rotation list controllers within the rig are now gone.
Instanced controllers of fingers are now better set up. This - coupled with the list controller fix above - results in a more stable rig.
Added lean in/out control to the X axis of the hip control.
Consolidated manipulators on arms and legs. Limb manipulators now contain swivel and squash/stretch control on their X and Y axes respectively.
Added shrug and hunch controls to the IK arm controls.
Resizing script now mirrors finger controls' values.
Fixed error where IK arm up vectors weren't keyable.
Fixed error where FK limbs would flip when forearms/shins that were longer than their respective upper arms/thighs, were rotated towards their maximum value.
Some keyframe values that were out of sync with some sliders' values were thought to be fixed, but weren't. Now they are.
Head got into gimbal lock when rotated up/down 90 degrees. Now fixed.
Made hip control scale with squash and stretch.
Properly locked scale values so they don't screw up when merging the rig into scenes of a different scale.
Tweaked shoulder offset setup.

Version 1.73 updated 05/02/2006

Maximum splay values on the right hand were not the same as the correct ones on the left.
Thumb splay values (and therefore all finger control values) now match each other on each side of the body.
Added "Upper arm up vector L" and "Upper arm up vector R" to "Misc - Arm flip axes" layer to help with any flipping problems on the upper arm twisting bones.
Chest influence on the FK arms was affecting the shoulder and upper arm twisting bones when in IK mode. Now fixed.
"IK arm up vector L01" renamed to "IK arm up vector R".
Some bones' stretch factors were set as "scale" when they should have been set as "none".
Mirroring the arm values in the resizing script mirrors the the rotation of the arms only, not the hands (how it used to be). Mirroring the hands' rotation is done in the hand resizing dialog.

Version 1.72 updated 01/02/2006

Keyframe values were out of sync with various sliders' values (eg. a toe curl value of 90 would return a keyframe value of 5156.62). Now fixed.
Resizing script now mirrors hands along with arms.
Torso offset bend back/forward caused the chest influences on the head and FK arms to be wrong. Now fixed.
Added some rig info text on the Master control.

Version 1.71 updated 23/01/2006

Rig filename in zip file corrected from "skeleton rig v1.7 r8.max.max" to "skeleton rig v1.7 r8.max"
X and Y scale tracks in the chest control object were wrongly set as keyable. Now fixed.

Version 1.7 updated 19/01/2006

Dummies and manipulators are now green!
Added hand lock and unlock buttons to IK arm controls. Clicking on "Lock hand" sets the IK influence on hand to 100 and rotates the IK arm control to the hand control's orientation (keeping the hand control's orientation where it is). Clicking on "Unlock hand" sets the IK influence on hand to 0 while keeping the hand control's orientation where it is.
Added limit controllers to the fk shins, fk forearms and all manipulators.
Toe roll, foot roll, heel roll and footstep values only show in IK mode on the legs - meaning less confusion in FK mode.
FK snap on legs now match the IK leg better if toe roll, foot roll, heel roll and/or footstep sliders are used.
Toe rotate attribute renamed to toe curl.
Instanced animation controllers between matched slider controls and manipulators (eg. you can adjust the keyframes of the knee swivel on the knee swivel manipulator).
Resizing script now saves a skin pose at its current state when closing the script.
Fingers now have increased splay ranges.
Added a slightly improved mirroring feature in the resizing script which will mirror correctly even if the axis orders of the fk limbs are changed.

Version 1.63 updated 18/08/2005

Cleaned up the wiring and constraints on the spine so the rig updates quicker.
Cleaned up the code of the resizing script so it runs a little quicker and takes a little less memory.

Version 1.62 updated 18/07/2005

Changed the rotation axis order on the head to XYZ to help prevent gimbal lock when head was rotated up and down.
FK snap on the left arm was incorrect as the forearm would rotate the wrong way. Now fixed.

Version 1.61 updated 04/07/2005

The hidden helpers at the tops of the legs weren't linked to the waist, so when the hips were rotated, the legs didn't follow. Now fixed.
The script had a couple of errors resizing the right heel roll manipulator and not mirroring the right FK shin. Also now fixed.

Version 1.6 updated 13/05/2005

Added in-between bones to help deformation within areas of large bone angle change (ie. shoulders, hips, elbows and knees).
Tweaked squash/stretch length and width scales along the arms, legs and spine. Bones now get thinner and fatter in more correct places.
Fixed an IK/FK snap bug that caused max to crash if you tried to merge a skeleton rig into a scene with one already existing.
Fixed minor gimbal rotation error on shrugging and hunching of shoulders.
Fixed error in finger offset objects and their connection to the resizing script.

Version 1.5 updated 26/02/2005

Added squash and stretch to chest, neck and all limbs.

Version 1.4 (unreleased)

Added a name independant (thanks to Martin Breidt and Larry Minton for explaining the code) FK and IK snap buttons for the arms and legs.
Took out all of the manipulators (I don't think anybody was really using them instead of rotation) except for the arm and leg IK swivel and foot manipulators.
Created chest movement custom attribute sliders like the head.

Version 1.3 (unreleased)

Gave the ability to rotate the shoulders and fingers (with keys displayed in the trackview) as well as being able to adjust them with their respective sliders.
Fixed a problem with the head control's gimbals doubling up (ie. when the head is rotated to the side, rotating it up and down would rotate it side to side.

Version 1.2 updated 25/11/2004

Added the ability to offset the ankle left and right.
Made the custom attributes more in line with 3dsmax 7 attributes.
Fixed the knee swivel manipulators' update problem.
Fixed the upperarm twisting bones so that they now work on all but the most crazy angles you can put the arm through.
Fixed the shrug/hunch manipulators so they now move to the right place when the shoulders are adjusted with the resizing script.

Version 1.1 updated 10/10/2004

Fixed a few bugs in the resizing script in relation to resizing the fingers.
Made the mirror function on the hands, mirror the hand's rotation (and fixed a thumb offset axis mirroring value).
Fixed a small problem where any rotation on the foot would reset while changing the length of the foot and snap back when done.
Changed the upvector axis of the forearm twist bones so that they don't flip when rotating the hand up and down.
Fixed a small problem of shoulder rotation changing the upper arm twisting bones.