Hello Helo, I wanted to ask could you make rigs to deform skeleton pieces (head, body, arms and legs) and Big-Fig parts (body and arms). The head is not in MB yet but if nothing happens I am planning to model it.
Thanks and best wishes,
Adrian Njamma
CustomLEGOBrick

Hi CustomLEGOBrick,

Unfortunately, I do not plan to create specific rigs for other type of minifigs. I may consider in the future to turn my add-on into a kind of "Rigify" add-on for Lego minifigs but if that happens, it would be in a long time...

Wow! I think a kind of 'Rigify' add-on would be fabulous! Your current rig is great for highly detailed images that include grunge, wear, and fingerprints. But when animating, I think I speak for most animators, that these things are not used at all and really add a lot of unnecessary resource usage. In one animation I had 7 minifigs. Animation of all 7 was impossible and I ended up removing the complicated materials and replacing them with simplified ones. Even so, I had to animate each minifig individually and turn off the others to prevent real-time lagging. I think a simplified 'Rigify' version of your rig would be a huge improvement. Actually, you should keep this one, since it is great for creating highly detailed images. Why not create a separate ‘lite’ version for animators? I would definitely buy it, and you'd have two products to sell instead of one. Keep the artists happy and make us animators happier. Besides, it becomes impossibly difficult to cram more features into something that is already full. Separate them and you make everyone happy. It might also make knees and elbows possible.

Hi dynocomp,

Even in the Workbench Engine you encountered lag ? Did you try with the Subsurf disabled on all the parts ?

I may consider to create a kind of Lite version if this is really necessary, but it would be part of the actual add-on and not a new add-on. But, for the moment, I prefer to work on a unique rig and try to make it the most user-friendly possible.

Hi Helo,
Duh, I still have a lot to learn. Of course disabling subsurf would help. Thanks!

In any case, I just wanted to mention that the elbows and knees would be a perk. Of course I was able to make your rig work anyway because you can conveniently turn off IK. Also, I discovered that the shoulders can twist the arms very nicely with IK on - and it makes it look more natural than just twisting at the elbow.

I love it! The more I work with it, the better it gets. I use your rig as a hobby, but if it was used professionally, it would have paid for itself many times over in the amount of time it saves in using it. Worth every penny and more. Thanks Helo!

Of course, I can't write a post without making some suggestion. This is a small one. The knees on your minifig seem kind of sharp. If you watch a LEGO movie with the bendy figures (or the games) you'll notice that the knees are very rounded and not pointed at all. If you would add a little blended weight to round the knees out that would be cool. But again, just a suggestion.

Many thanks!

Hello,

I enjoy using MecaFig with the custom-made characters I did, but I have one question (two actually, but they are in the same subject).

How can I pair hair and hats to the head without improper deforms? And how can I have characters properly hold objects in the hand?

*NOTE: My preference is the soft bones and IK controls.

Discard the above comment. I saw TheDA04's question that is of a similar caliber to the above. Check Page 4 for his question and Helo's answer about attaching hair, hats, handheld objects, etc.

Hi, I have difficulties with properly importing characters. Whenever I import a minifigure in blender with a .zmbx file, it's always missing hats/hair, capes, and objects they're holding. I bought the Blender Advanced & MecaFig addons. Any advice would be really appreciated. Thanks!

Hi,

@dynocomp,

Thanks, I'm glad to know you're happy with my rig. 😃
This feature is on my to-do list but not implemented yet. I did not really have the time to work on MecaFig these past months. But if I can implement it for the next release, I'll do it.

@BoronGold765,

Sorry for not having answer to your question sooner. I'm glad you finally found the answer to your problem in my previous answers.

@psychicpirate,

The actual version of MecaFig do not deal with accessories. That's why only your minifig is imported.

The solution I recommend is to import your entire scene with the Mecabricks add-on in a Blender file and import your MiniFig with MecaFig in a separate Blender file to avoid conflicts.
Then, in your Blender file that contains your entire scene, you can append your MiniFig(s) by clicking on "File > Append" and selecting the Collection(s) that contain it in the browser.
Once your MiniFig is added in your scene, you'll need to link each accessory to the different parts of the MiniFig. As BoronGold765 mentionned it in the previous post, I already made a little tutorial on how to link an accessory to a MecaFig in Blender:

*"The button "Anchors" allows you to show/hide some specific bones (which look like "empties") on which you can parent your accessories:

For parent your accessories, you need to first, in Object Mode, select your accessory then select the Armature of your MecaFig. Then, go in Pose Mode (by hitting "Ctrl + Tab" or by clicking on "Enter Pose Mode" in the MecaFig panel), and select the Anchor bone on which you want to parent your accessory (if you want, by example, parent on the Head, select the bone "ANC_Head") and, finally, hit "Ctrl + P > Bone". You accessory should now be parented to the MecaFig.

If you need to quickly move an accessory to an Anchor, you can use the Snap Tool of Blender:

For this, select the armature of your MecaFig and go in Pose Mode. Select the Anchor where you want to place your accessory and hit "Ctrl + S > Cursor to Selected". Then, go back in Object Mode, select your accessory and hit "Ctrl + S > Selection to Cursor". Your accessory should now be placed on the Anchor. You'll probably need to rotate your accessory sometimes to orientate it in the right direction."*

If you have other questions, do not hesitate ! 😉

Thanks.

Hi, I just bought this add-on and, in way to learn how to use it I resorted to @Helo tutorials...

I'm having difficulties with my minifigure geometry. This tutorial (https://youtu.be/vYx5gKma_fs?list😛LZVEBAeoJ05ULF0F_g3HubXGz022YYxZW) shows that we're able to switch between different geometry "resolutions" by enabling/disabling bevel and/or subsurf in the geometry panel, but actually, I can't see where exactly...

My minifigure is looking like this:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NmDfWxvhDd61Ck7GIJa5Ztb1u3V74dsy/view?usp=sharing

And I wanted it to look like this one shown in the tutorial:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lQvwDtztwz5uGFHfIIPIbcxBuYDx5nvd/view?usp=sharing

(I'm using blender 2.82; as you can see my minifigure is flatter than the one shown in the video)

Is this a change made in a recent update? If this question is true, how can I switch between geometry "resolutions"? If the first question is false, hos can I solve this "issue" of mine?

Another question that I have is: How can I link a hair to the head piece, in way to move the head and the hair piece simultaneously?

I await for a possible answer,
LegoMinifiguresCustoms

Hi LegoMinifiguresCustoms,

The feature you saw in this video has never been implemented in MecaFig. This was a test I made in the development version of the add-on.

In the "Geometry" panel of the main MecaFig panel, you can increase the resolution of each part by clicking on the little screen logo near each part name. You can also choose the level of subdivision for each part thanks to the "Subsurf Viewport" setting in each sub-panel.

Take a look at my previous post if you want to link accessories to a MecaFig.

Thanks.

Hello @Helo,

Thank you very much for the answer! It helped me a lot!

I can only praise this community and your add-on. I love the way the pieces bend as they look very accurate to the ones LEGO uses sometimes in its minifigures series images.

I can't wait to see which feature you'll add to this add-on next!

Greetings,
LegoMinifiguresCustoms

What is the solution to use the HD minfigure texture maps in the high resolution version? Since the uv edition is different.

Hi ricardoalzate,

Sorry, I'm not sure to understand your question. Are you talking about the MecaFig addon or the High Resolution Minifigure addon ?

I'm very new to Meca and glad i found it- I'm torn between buying Mecafig and Citrine's Minifig rig. His seems to have better detailing on the plastic od the arms, but I'm not sure, and can't find any good closeups on the mecafigs arms. money is really tight so hopefully you can send me screenshots so i don't have to buy both? i also don't know how easily customizable Citrine's is.

I dont have a minifig rig im selling????

WAIT, WHAT?? I WENT TO THE WEBSITE IN YOUR PROFILE AND IN THE STORE SECTION THERE WAS A RIG-

idk if links are allowed but- it says on the store page

Custom 3D Blender
Lego Minifigure Rig
$50.00 USD​

Aight ima remove that, that was from a few years ago loll

Hi Zacharoth,

MecaFig's arms are fully modelised. They also have a normal map allowing to add micro details like the joint lines and the injection point of the mould. The shader in MecaFig allow also to add some wears like grunge, scratches and fingerprints.

I made some videos during the development of MecaFig. You can watch them at this link, [url]https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list😛LZVEBAeoJ05ULF0F_g3HubXGz022YYxZW[/url].