mesh anatomy
Simple division 1 cube ( a cube that has no subdivisions )
- 8 Vertexes
- 12 Edges
- 6 [Quad] Polygon Faces ( 12 Triangles)
Why is this important? What has this got to do with rigging?
Every rig has to move those Verts / Edges / Faces (components) by some means (connections,
constraints, deformers etc), so it is important you know about them.
Note: If you can; DO learn some modelling! All the better! It will help you
know what to ask for
These components of a 3D model are considered the guts of what makes up the
the shape of a 3D model.
A shape requires a transform to describe it’s overall position in 3DSpace
(eg: the position that defines where all the components are usually determined
by a transform node).
- We can manipulate a 3D object(mesh, model) via this
transform. - We can manipulate a 3D object(mesh, model) by deforming the
shape.
Transform's apply the position(translation), orientation(rotation) and scale of the
3D model. Thus when we move an object(mesh, model) via it’s transform we can Translate,
Rotate and Scale it directly.
Though to change the look of the shape of the object, we usually have to change
the components of the 3D object, by modelling it to look different, or in our
case we have to deform it via the rig.
Another thing to note here is another sub structure of a 3D model called
UV's. These are the texture co-ordinate system used to map images to
the faces of the model but they can be leveraged for other things rig related too.
Here is the default UV for the cube.
Interesting how the gif unfolds the cube to the same shape. This is because
each face of the 3D model has a UV associated to it.
You can use UV co-ordinates in rigging to for sticking things to a mesh, etc…