Has Smart Bones Made The Mandicon (sp?) Rig Obsolete?

[drumlug13]

(Sorry for spelling the name wrong, I was unable to locate the original thread for reference.)

If you guys are going back through old character rigs to update with the Smart Bones feature, I'm curious about what everyone's doing with the previous arm/joint rigs. Is there still a benefit to using the 3 separate shapes to form arms?

[Víctor Paredes]

Mostly.
The mandcon rig is far less powerful than smart bones and more complex to make. Anyway, I have found that it still being very useful for "dinosaur" kind of tails and stuff like that (as octopus tentacles or soft stems).
So, from my part I use it a very few times now, but it is a very clever rig and it's nice to have it on hand.

[Lukas]

Anyway, I have found that it still being very useful for "dinosaur" kind of tails and stuff like that (as octopus tentacles or soft stems).

Do you have an example of why this is usefull and how it works? We're working on a project with lots of tentacles at the moment...

[drumlug13]

Do you have an example of why this is usefull and how it works? We're working on a project with lots of tentacles at the moment...

I have a character with a long tail on a stocking cap that he wears. If you have the separate shapes in the joint, it really helps to keep the shape from folding over on top of itself and disappearing. Especially if you are using bone dynamics. That's just one example where I might keep the old rig .... BUT even as I'm typing that out I was thinking that you could set that up with Smart Bones too.

[Lukas]

Sounds interesting.

[funksmaname]

If you split the shape into segments it will never go hollow... I think the lint is its probably less work with a segmented bone chain to manually create smar bones for each direction for every smart bone. While the result would probably be marginally better, I imagine that the speed Selgin rigs it's not worth the hassle.

Lucas, search the tips forum, there must be several vids there about doing this rig. You could also explore just using strokes for tentacles depending on style...

[neeters_guy]

Here's a good thread that covers the mandcon rig: arm bending
You can enhance this rig using smart bones as well.