Create Ragdoll

This submenu makes the Ragdoll happen.

If in previous steps you’ve made everything correctly, you are ready to create the Ragdoll

Create the Ragdoll. #

Push the “Ragdoll” button.

The Ragdoll plugin builds Connectors against the skeleton, in the Connector settings attaches the joints to each other, creates rigid body colliders to cover up the body. The created Connectors is trying to maintain the correct orientation. I.e. if it is the human knee, then it should bend forward and not backward or sideward. Plugin reads the bones in the Retarget menu and in the result creates realistic human behavior. 

The Collider is responsible for a physics collision during animation. The Ragdoll plugin build them with the form and sizes of the character body! This saves you having to manually build colliders for your character!

During creating the Ragdoll you can chose the type of colliders.

Cubes checkbox. #

Cubes checkbox. Here you can chose between the generating the polygon object collider or the cube collider. Sometime each one suits better to your task.

Left: cubes (subdivided). Right: polygon objects.

Cubes are little bit faster. Meshes are more physically correctly.

Springs #

Springs button. Push it and the Ragdoll plugin will create the bunch of springs. You can find it under the Ragdoll instance. Each spring connects the wrist bone to a forearm, the forearm bone to a shoulder, the hip bone to the pelvis, etc.

Using it you can control the character’s pose.

For example, create the Ragdoll, create the springs, hit the play animation. Your character will fall on the floor losing its pose. This is how you expected the Ragdoll behavior.

Now set the force of all springs to 60. Hit play. Character will fall, but now the character holds himself in the pose for which the springs were created.

Achieve any results!

You can create as many bunches as you want. Mix them during the animation.

Just create the animation keys for the spring’s force.

Colliders creation/changing #

When you have created the ragdoll, two buttons are existing here:

• Simple solver
• GeRay solver

You are free to delete collider for any joint in any time, create a new one with type of Cube or Mesh, modify it, delete again and create a new one with another type.

When the plugin calculates the character’s body parameters, some parts of the 3d model could be hard for understanding for a plugin. F.e. when the character is not in the T-pose. Or when the mesh is complicated. In this case you may need to modify the colliders by hand. These buttons will help you with it.

To create a new collider:

1. you need to select the joint(s)
2. set the Cube-checkbox – Off,
3. push the GeRay solver button.
4. the Ragdoll plugin will recalculate and create new Mesh-collider.

To recalculate the sizes of the cube-collider(s) (if you’ve created the ragdoll with the cube-colliders):

1. you need to select the cube-collider(s).
2. set the Cube-checkbox – On,
3. if you’ve assigned the mesh in the Retarget menu, pass this step. If in the Retarget menu you did not assign the character’s mesh to plugin, please select the closest mesh to the previously selected collider(s),
4. push any of “solver” buttons. Choose which one works better for you.

These two buttons depend on the type of the selected objects – the cube or the joint.

The logic to assign the character’s mesh #

You can assign the exact mesh of the character or not (in the previous Retarget group / Character Mesh”-in/exclude field). Depending on this several logics, the Ragdoll plugin will work differently.

F.e. lets consider the generating of colliders logic when the Plugin will process the head_joint. We have two ways here:

1. If a) you did not assign any character’s mesh and b) have set Cube checkbox = Off. In this case the Ragdoll plugin will process all the meshes skinned to the head_joint and will calculate the collider for each mesh it can find. In the result you will receive few Mesh-colliders under the head_joint in your scene: for the head_mesh, eye_mesh, teeth_mesh and for a part of the neck from a body_mesh.
2. If a) in the Retarget group / “Character Mesh”-in/exclude field you have assign the main head_mesh and skip the eyes_mesh, teeth_mesh etc and b) have set the Cube checkbox = Off, then in this case the plugin will generate the Mesh-collider exactly for a head_mesh. Under the head_joint you will receive a single-collider and avoid all other head parts.

Sometimes the 1st method is better for us, sometimes the 2nd.

It does not matter the amount of mesh colliders under the joint.

Till the setting “Collision/Inherit Tag” is set to a “Compound Collision Shape” in the Dynamic body tag the physics engine will process everything under the joint as a single object.

Delete button / Created objects #

In the “Created objects“ in/exclude field you can see a bunch of objects which was created for our ragdoll. Each object in this field now is registered in the current Ragdoll plugin instance. Now the Plugin will apply different algorithms to each of these objects. Rigid body tags are controlled via “Follow position”, “Follow rotation”, “Mass” sliders, rope-bones (created via “Generator” mode) are controlled by “radius” & “position distribution” parameters. Etc. And of course all objects are controlled by Delete button.

You can manually remove the object from this field and the Plugin will stop to take any control over them.

Push the Delete button and you will completelly delete current ragdoll from your scene.

There is also the same Delete button in the Advanced tab. The Delete button in the Advanced tab deletes only objects which were created via Advanced tab. The same button but in the main tab will delete everything.

This is especially useful for cases when firstly you’ve created the main ragdoll and the secondary you’ve created its fingers via Advanced tab. You can delete ragdoll for fingers without hitting the ragdoll for body.

Also you can use few plugin instances for one character: the first one for the tail, the second one for legs, etc. And delete/create again parts freely.