How to rig a nipple piercing

[Ema Nova]

I have learned how to make simple things like bars and rings in Blender and make them *shiny* silver in SL but they are all unrigged.

This is OK for ears because you can just attach them to a point and they stay there. But I understand that to make nipple rings for a mesh body I would need to make them into rigged mesh.

I have heard a bit about this but I am confused about a few things. Helpfully someone can explain!

1. I have been told that I need to know weights in order to make things rigged for different mesh bodies. Is it true that I would have to apply to mesh body makers to be given this weights information? I don't really know what is meant by weights.
2. If I have to apply for this, why do body makers restrict this information?
3. Do I have to have this weights information simply to attach a piercing to a nipple? I am not making clothes. It's two single points that need to stick to the body.
4. Do I have to get Avastar for Blender just for my simple requirements? And even if it is not mandatory, is it still recommended?
5. If I manage to get all of this working, once I rig a piercing to a nipple would it move with body physics? Or is physics something I need to do extra scripting for?

Thank youuuu, sorry for the noob question (I did look in the search)

Edited December 30, 2020 by emr20
fixed punctuation

[Cyrule Adder]

1. Yes. You need to understand how to weight your piercings correctly for them to follow the body in motion. Different bodies will normally have different weights, so there rarely ever is a catch all solution to anything. As far as applying to mesh body developers for their kits, that's only some of the bodies. The big name bodies, Maitreya, Bezella, and what have you have this requirement. It's rediculous in my opinion. But whatever. Your typical furry bodies such as Kemono, Avatar 2.0, Regallia, Snaggletooth, Develin, etc all tends to have their dev kits open to the public. I honestly don't bother with the popular bodies..

2. My best guess is that they don't want people on SL to steal their stuff. Another possibility is the exclusivity means that they can control the quality of items that is made for their bodies. Which only helps in sales. Normally for any body to do this, would drastically hurt support. But in their case, since they already have popularity, they can control who gets their dev kits to their standards. However, as much as a hot take this is, the quality of Maitreya is like looking at the project of someone who only guessed at anatomy, and is capitalizing on the fact that they have six digit numbers for polygons.

3. If the nipple does not have jiggle physics, you do not need weighting information to attach it. If it has jiggle physics, or for what ever reason the breast are being animated say... sex furniture, meme animations, or sexual gestures, you need to weight the nipple piercings to the breast.

4. No. But it makes life easier for you if you did. The mesh to SL process is absurdly annoying without a tool assisting you.

5. Already answered above. If the piercing is not weighted, it will not move with body physics.

Edited December 30, 2020 by Cyrule Adder

[Janet Voxel]

1) You need a body kit. Whatever body you want the rings for, you’re going to need a body kit if you’re rigging. It’s basically a dummy so that you understand where you’re placing the items, but more importantly the skin weights are included in the body. Some kits are free, some you have to apply for. I always suggest you start out with the freely available kits at least until you figure out rigging and have enough items to apply for the kits that require an application.

2) It’s pride really. There is no quality control in SL. It gives an air of exclusivity, but a simple search on MP will show otherwise. All it does is cause people to do is get a bootleg kit or use other means of getting a real kit. A bootleg kit may not have the proper skin weights, which will lead to the very thing they are trying to prevent: a poorly rigged item. So it only ends up hurting the consumer. Either way, it’s not going to stop someone who’s really determined from getting a kit.

3) You could in theory, but the nipples won’t be in the same place for different bodies or even a different shape. It’s best to learn to rig for something like that.

4) Most people use Avastar for rigging, but there is also Bento Buddy. It’s not necessary, but it would be a lot harder without it and you won’t find as much help doing it without one of those.

5) If you rig it properly, it will move with physics. Rigging something so small is easier than you think and will most like just need to transfer the weights, so it won’t be as daunting as rigging pants or a skirt or something that is influenced by multiple bones.

[Ema Nova]

5 hours ago, Janet Voxel said:

Rigging something so small is easier than you think and will most like just need to transfer the weights

This is what I wondered. Seeing as I just want to rig something very small, could I get just the weights for these positions without needing a full Maitreya kit? It sounds like it is just some numbers I need to put into Avastar. Maybe I need to ask some people privately to tell me the numbers I need. I am happy to just make this for Maitreya to start with and maybe add more in the future.


Thank you!

[Janet Voxel]

2 hours ago, emr20 said:

This is what I wondered. Seeing as I just want to rig something very small, could I get just the weights for these positions without needing a full Maitreya kit? It sounds like it is just some numbers I need to put into Avastar. Maybe I need to ask some people privately to tell me the numbers I need. I am happy to just make this for Maitreya to start with and maybe add more in the future.


Thank you!

I was talking about with avastar and a kit. 

I'm not aware of any way of someone rigging without a kit. It would take an insane amount of guessing  and that's just rigging. Without the dummy how would you know exactly where to put the rings? More guessing!

[Ema Nova]

4 hours ago, Janet Voxel said:

Without the dummy how would you know exactly where to put the rings? More guessing!

Oh ok, i have no idea how Avastar even looks, i've not seen it. So it shows you the body then. I suppose I will have to download it but then it I can't get the Maitreya model it's impossible fo me to get started. So it kind of sucks they don't give it out to beginners.

[Wulfie Reanimator]

6 minutes ago, emr20 said:

Oh ok, i have no idea how Avastar even looks, i've not seen it. So it shows you the body then. I suppose I will have to download it but then it I can't get the Maitreya model it's impossible fo me to get started. So it kind of sucks they don't give it out to beginners.

If you want some practice and an easy starting point, you could try another body that offers its devkit for free.

For example: https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Sugarcult-Project-Regalia/18217485

[Janet Voxel]

10 minutes ago, emr20 said:

Oh ok, i have no idea how Avastar even looks, i've not seen it. So it shows you the body then. I suppose I will have to download it but then it I can't get the Maitreya model it's impossible fo me to get started. So it kind of sucks they don't give it out to beginners.

Avastar is an addon for blender. You load it into blender, it does a lot of the heavy lifting as far as rigging goes. So what you want is Avastar or Bento Buddy to do the weight transfer part for you. The thing is, you still need the kit for the dummy for modeling and the weights for rigging. 

In the pullout on the right under workflows is Avastar:

https://gyazo.com/57e32abb6cb5db4fd301ad12c6fa28ab

Edited December 31, 2020 by Janet Voxel
picture

[Ema Nova]

Thanks everyone. I only have a Maitreya body and really the jewellery was for personal use primarily. I thought maybe i would sell them too if they were any good but that is not the main aim. But it sounds like i won't be able to make Maitreya ones.

I will have a look at one of the free body kits and try to learn anyway