Rigging and Skinning Pipeline

Purpose

Define skeleton, skinning, and attachment conventions so rigs deform well, share animations, and stay within budgets.

Use When

• characters or creatures need skeletal animation and no rig convention exists
• animations must be shared or retargeted across multiple characters
• deformation artifacts, bone-count costs, or attachment offsets keep recurring

Inputs

• character/creature inventory and their animation needs
• target runtime's skinning limits (bone count, influences per vertex)
• shared-animation and retargeting requirements
• attachment needs (weapons, props, cloth, accessories)

Process

1. define the canonical skeleton per character family: bone naming, hierarchy, orientation conventions, and a documented rest pose (T or A)
2. budget bones and influences per vertex (typically 4) against the weakest target; separate deform bones from control/helper bones and export only deform bones
3. standardize skinning quality rules: clean weights at deformation hotspots (shoulders, hips, spine), no influences from non-deform bones, normalized weights
4. make rigs retarget-friendly: consistent proportions of the core hierarchy, humanoid-standard naming where the runtime supports retargeting
5. define attachment sockets/bones (hands, back, hips) with documented orientation so props attach without per-prop offsets
6. validate every new rig with a standard pose/animation set before production animations are authored on it

Outputs

• skeleton convention sheet per character family (naming, hierarchy, rest pose)
• bone and influence budgets
• skinning quality checklist and validation pose set
• attachment socket map

Quality Bar

• any animator can open any character and find the same skeleton conventions
• shared animations retarget across the family without per-character cleanup
• deformation passes the validation pose set at the budgeted influence count
• props attach to sockets correctly without per-prop offset hacks

Common Failure Modes

• every character rigged ad hoc, so nothing retargets and every animation is single-use
• control rigs exported into the runtime, doubling bone counts silently
• skin weights tweaked per animation instead of fixing the rig once
• attachment points eyeballed per prop, drifting as characters change

Related Agents

• technical-artist
• animation-programmer

Related Commands

• art-3d-pass
• perf-budget

Related Skills

• 3d-animation-pipeline
• 3d-asset-pipeline

Notes

• Keep this skill aligned with the relevant rules layer and current project documentation.
• If engine-specific constraints materially change the workflow, hand off to the matching engine skill or engine-specific reviewer.
• Boundary: this skill owns the rig and deformation; 3d-animation-pipeline owns the clips authored on it.