Component Types ​

• Advanced Mode ​

  This is technically a user preference, but it relates to component parameters. Some component parameters are rarely necessary or only if you want to really fine tune stuff. So, these options are hidden until this option is enabled, to ease the new user experience.

• Constraint Relinking ​

  On any component, you can add constraints to the metarig bones. On generation, these constraints will be moved to the generated bones that make the most sense for a given component type. This is just to allow you to add some constraints when needed, without using Bone Tweak components. For example, you can add Copy Rotation constraints to the metarig bones of an FK Chain component. That constraint can target the generated rig's bones, even though it's a different armature object. During generation, that constraint will be moved to the corresponding FK control.

• Root Parent ​

  If specified, parent the root of this component to the chosen bone. You're choosing from the generated rig's bones here. If the chosen bone is a bendy bone, additional options appear: - Use an Armature constraint instead of normal parenting: This constraint takes bendy bone curvature into account, but it also means the parenting transforms will affect the bone's local matrix. If you want to use the bone's local transformations to drive something, you essentially won't be able to. - Create parent helper bone: This fixes the local matrix issue by creating a parent helper bone for the aforementioned Armature constraint.

• Parent Switching ​

  This option lets you create a parent switcher by entering the UI names of each parent on the left side, and the corresponding parent bone on the right side. The bone names are chosen from the generated rig. The chosen bones will be the available parents for this component's root bone, and a selector will be added to the rig UI. Different component types may implement parent switching differently. The specific behaviour is explained underneath the checkbox when it is enabled.

• Custom Property Storage ​

  This setting will appear for components that need to create custom properties. Custom Properties are used for things like IK/FK switching.

  • "Default": A bone named "Properties" will be created to store custom properties.
  • "Custom": If you want to store the custom properties on an arbitrary bone, this option lets you select one. The selected bone has to be higher in the metarig hierarchy than this component, else you'll get a warning.
  • "Generated": Component types implement their own behaviours for creating a custom property storage bone in a place that makes most sense for that component type. For example, the Biped Leg component will put the properties bone behind the foot control.

• Bone Sets ​

  Components organize their bones using parameters called Bone Sets. These live under the Bone Organization sub-panel, which is only visible when Advanced Mode is enabled. Bone Sets are further explained on the Organizing Bones page.

• Stretch Segments ​

  Number of sub-controls for each bone in the meta chain.

• Tip Control ​

  Whether there should be a control at the tip of this chain.

• B-Bone Density ​

  B-Bone segments will be distributed equally along the chain. As long as this value is >0, each bone will have at least 2 b-bone segments. A high density will not have a severe impact on performance.

• Sharp Sections ​

  Bendy bones will not affect the curvature of their neighbours, unless their shared stretch control is scaled up on its local Y axis.

• Smooth Spline ​

  Bendy bones will have a wider effect on the curvature of their neighbours, to easily get smoother curves. Works best when Deform Segments is 1, but that is not a requirement. Works fine with Sharp Sections, but it will only take effect once a stretch control is scaled up along its local Y axis.

• Preserve Volume ​

  When enabled, deform bones will become fatter when squashed, and slimmer when stretched.

• Create Shape Key Helpers ​

  Create helper bones that can be used to read the rotational difference between deform bones. Useful for driving corrective shape keys. These helpers will be prefixed "SKH" for "Shape Key Helper".

• Create Deform Controls ​

  Create controls that allow you to translate and scale deform bones by disconnecting them from their neighbours.

• Merge Controls ​

  Create controls for points where multiple Face Grid chains intersect. If a Chain Intersection component is found at that intersection, that will be used instead of generating one from scratch.

• Create Root ​

  Create a root control for this rig component. This is required for the Hinge Toggle.

• Hinge ​

  Set up a hinge toggle. This will add an option to the rig UI. When FK Hinge is enabled, the FK chain doesn't inherit rotation from its parent.

• Position Along Bone ​

  How far (0-1) the FK control should be along the length of the bones. A value of 0.5 can make it easier to create smooth curves.

• Inherit Scale ​

  Sets the scale inheritance type for FK controls.

• Rotation Mode ​

  Rotation Mode for the FK controls.

• Duplicate First FK ​

  Create an extra parent control for the first FK control.

• Display FK in Center ​

  Display the FK controls in the center of the bone rather than at the head of the bone. Only affects display, no functional difference. Purely up to preference.

• Test Animation ​

  This panel will only show when the "Generate Action" Generator Parameter is enabled. When this option is enabled, this component will add keyframes into the generated action which can be used to test character deformations.

• Rotation Range ​

  The negative and positive rotation amount in degrees to use for the aforementioned test animation.

• Rotation Axes ​

  Which axes you want tested in the test animation. For example for fingers, you probably only need one axis.

• Cloth Object ​

  The cloth object that the FK chain will be constrained to with Damped Track constraints. The object should have vertex groups named "PSX-FK control_name". You can leave this unspecified at first and a simple object will be generated for you, which you can later modify.

• Force Re-Generate ​

  If you intend to modify the cloth mesh, make sure to disable this option since otherwise re-generating the rig will also re-generate the cloth mesh. Enabling this is useful however when you are still iterating on the shape of the bone chain, in which case you want to re-generate the mesh every time.

• Pin Falloff ​

  Type of the vertex weight falloff curve for the chain of vertices making up the cloth mesh.

• Pin Falloff Offset ​

  Stretch factor for the pin falloff curve. Increasing this will make the cloth more stiff.

• Create Physics Controls ​

  When enabled, this will create a PSX control chain which lets you control the cloth simulation. This will only work on pinned vertices - vertices with a pin weight of 0 will only be affected by the cloth simulation, while a weight of 1 means being fully affected by the armature.

• Create IK Setup ​

  Create an IK-like setup inspired by BlenRig. This will also add an IK/FK and IK Stretch setting to the rig UI.

• Duplicate Controls ​

  Make duplicates of the main spine controls.

• World-Align Controls ​

  Align the torso and hips controls fully with the world.

• Duplicate Controls ​

  Make duplicates of the main spine controls.

• World-Align Controls ​

  Align the torso and hips controls fully with the world.

• Up Axis ​

  Rotate the bone shape to align with this axis of the bone.

• Create IK Pole ​

  Whether the IK constraint should use a pole target control, and whether such bone should even be created.

• IK At Tail ​

  Put the IK control at the tail of the last bone, rather than at its head.

• World-Aligned IK Master ​

  Align the IK master control with the nearest world axis. Not recommended for arms when your resting pose is an A-pose.

• Flatten Bone Chain ​

  Although not a parameter, this button will flatten your chain along a plane with as little changes as possible, to ensure predictable IK behaviour.

• Create IK Switch Control ​

  Instead of using a UI slider for FK/IK switching, create a control in the viewport for the switching. Whether the IK constraint should use a pole target control, and whether such bone should even be created.

• Duplicate IK Master ​

  Create an extra child control for the IK master.

• Limit Elbow Axes ​

  Lock the Y and Z rotation of the elbow, constraining the rig to realistic rotation axes. More importantly, this is necessary for precise IK->FK snapping.

• Rubber Hose ​

  This option is only available when Smooth Chain is enabled and Deform Segments is greater than 1. When this option is enabled, a slider is added to a rig UI which lets you have an automatic cartoony rubber hose limb effect.

• With Control ​

  Instead of a UI slider, create a control bone that can be scaled to control the strength of the automatic rubber hose effect.

• Type ​

  There are two ways to achieve the rubber hose deformation. One results in lengthening the limbs, while the other results in shortening them. It's a question of which style you prefer.

• Foot Roll ​

  Whether to create a foot roll setup.

• Heel Pivot ​

  If you are using foot roll, you can specify a bone whose location will be used as the pivot point for when the foot is rolled backwards.

• Curve ​

  The target curve object to be hooked up to bone controls. Must be chosen!

• Custom Name ​

  String to use to name the bones. If not specified, use the base bone's name.

• Inherit Scale ​

  Scale inheritance setting of the curve hook and spline root controls.

• X Axis Symmetry ​

  Controls will be named with .L/.R suffixes based on their X position. A curve object that is symmetrical around its own X 0 point is expected, otherwise results may be unexpected.

• Controls for Handles ​

  For every curve point hook control, create two children that separately control the handles of that curve point.

• Rotatable Handles ​

  Set up the handle controls in a way where they can be rotated. Note that they will still allow translation, but if you translate them, rotating them afterwards will be unpredictable.

• Separate Radius Control ​

  Instead of using the hook control's size to control the curve point's radius, create a separate child control to do so.

• Curve Handle Length ​

  A multiplier on curve handle length. 1.0 means the curve handle is long enough to reach the neighbour curve point.

• Deform Setup ​

  How this component should behave with Armature modifiers:
  • None: Don't create deformation bones. Then this component cannot be used with Armature modifiers.
  • Preserve: Preserve the Deform checkbox of the bones as set in the metarig.
  • Create: Create DEF- bones that are a separate chain with the Deform checkbox enabled.

• Subdivide Bones ​

  When Deform Setup is set to Create, this value defines how many deforming bones to generate along each original bone in the metarig. More bones results in a smoother curvature. However, the Spline IK constraint only supports a chain of up to 255 bones.

• Match Controls to Bones ​

  When enabled, control bones will be created at the locations of the meta chain's bones. When disabled, control bones will be distributed an equal distance from each other along the chain.

• Number of Hooks ​

  When the above setting is disabled, this specifies how many controls should be placed along the chain.

• Lattice ​

  The lattice object that will be generated. If empty, one will be created.

• Regenerate ​

  Whether the lattice should be re-generated from scratch or not. Disable this if you want to customize the lattice, otherwise any changes beside the object's name, will be lost when you re-generate the rig.

• Aim Group ​

  Aim rigs belonging to the same Aim Group will have a shared master control generated for them.

• Target Distance ​

  Distance of the aim target from the base bone. This value is not in Blender units, but is a value relative to the scale of the rig.

• Flatten X ​

  Discard the X component of the eye vector when placing the target control. Useful for eyes that have significant default rotation. This can result in the eye becoming cross-eyed in the default pose, but it prevents the eye targets from crossing each other or being too far from each other.

• Create Deform ​

  Create a deform bone for this rig. May not be always needed, for example if you just want to object-parent something to the aim rig, like a camera.

• Create Root ​

  Create a root bone for this rig.

• Create Sub-Control ​

  Create a secondary control and deform bone attached to the aim control. Useful for fake eye highlights.

• Create Custom Pivot ​

  Create a parent control whose local translation is not propagated to the main control, but its rotation and scale are.

• Create Deform Bone ​

  Create a second bone with the DEF- prefix and the Deform property enabled, so you can use it as a deform bone.

• Ensure Free Transformation ​

  If this bone has any constraints, move them to a parent bone prefixed with "CON", unless the constraint name starts with "KEEP".

• Custom Properties: UI Sub-panel ​

  Choose which sub-panel the custom properties should be displayed in. If empty, the properties won't appear in the rig UI.

• Custom Properties: UI Label ​

  Choose which label the custom properties should be displayed under. If empty, the properties will display at the top of the subpanel.

When a Chain Intersection is placed at the same location as one or more Face Grid bones, the Chain Intersection will be used as the intersection control, rather than automatically creating that intersection control. This can be useful because the automatically generated intersection controls have unwieldy bone names, and their orientation may also need to be customized.

This component has no additional parameters.

• Additive Constraints ​

  If true, the constraints on this bone will be added on top of the target bone's already existing constraints, and then relinked. Otherwise, the original constraints will be overwritten.

• Tweak Parameters ​

  The bone's properties are split into these categories:
  • Transforms
  • Locks
  • Rotation Mode
  • Bone Shape
  • Color Palette
  • Collections
  • Custom Properties
  • IK Settings
  • B-Bone Settings Each of these can be chosen to be copied over to the target bone or not. For example if you just want to add some extra constraints to a bone, you probably don't want to overwrite its transforms, bone shape, etc, so you would leave all of those unticked, and they will remain untouched.