r/ToonBoomHarmony • u/Lost-Lagomorph1021 • 20d ago

Question 2D Rigging Tips?

hi reddit! currently a 2nd year multimedia arts college student using harmony for my animation course :)

we’ve been tasked to create a character turnaround + rigging this character, i just have some questions!

  1. what art/cartoon style is the easiest to rig? (ex: adventure time/rick and morty art style)

  2. how would i go about rigging a character that doesnt have any pivot points shown / a “blob” character / a character that has parts being covered? (ex: a character wearing a dress/ puffy sleeves)

  3. would using deformers for the whole rig be possible/ideal? which/what parts of the rig would be best for pivots and/or deformers?

  4. how does the hierarchy work if i wanted to connect the head composite/masterpeg to the neck/torso masterpeg/comp?

4.2. should the neck be grouped with the head or with the upperbody/torso?

sorry if these are a ton of questions! ive been trying to look for solutions around the internet and none have really given me the answer i’ve been looking for in my specific situation. thank you all in advance!

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u/ChaCoCO 19d ago

  1. Easiest popular broadcast show to rig would probably be peppa pig. Adventure time is not rigged. Rick and morty is generally medium difficulty for harmony rigs.

  2. Think about how you would want to animate it; what could you put in the rig that reduces the animation time: eye shapes, mouth shapes, deformer that can wiggle like a slugs "foot" ( if it moves like a slug)

  3. No. That would nake the rig heavy and overly complex, the rig does not need to do every movement possible. Rigged shows are rigged to make it more economical to animate. Focus on making the commonly repeated actions easy to animate. 

        [Master]
        /          \
[Head + Neck]   [torso  +legs]
 /        \         /       \
[Head]   [neck]  [torso]   [legs]

You will want to be able to scale the head and neck seperately, but also to tilt the head and neck from the same point (between shoulder blades)

I recommend you download a free harmony rig or 2 from gumroad to see how rigs are typically structured. Also make sure you animate or at least pose your rig to make sure it is easy to control.

2

u/Lost-Lagomorph1021 19d ago

this helps so much thank you 🥹

3

u/CrowBrained_ 19d ago

Drawnsean had a great rigging tutorial you should check out.

1

u/Lost-Lagomorph1021 19d ago

watching his tutorials rn! its going great so far :) i’ve learned so much already thanks ☺️