Rigify - Mesh Scale

Question

I'm planning to use Rigify to add some movement to some human models. The human models are made to the scale I need them in for the scenes. However, I watched Blender Cookie's tutorial on using Rigify where the presenter says to simply scale up/down your mesh to match the meta-rig. While I'm sure this works, I'll end up with my characters being the wrong scale for my project.

What is the proper workflow for using Rigify while maintaining the mesh's original scale?

Answer 1

The workflow I recommend when using Rigify:

1. Confirm the character's scale and proportion related to their environment and props, then apply character's transformation (otherwise, an accidental scale reset could ruin the rig),
2. Carefully adjust the metarig to the character's scale and proportions,
3. Generate final rig from the metarig.

Adjusting metarig scale is preferable than fixing final rig. That's because if a character's scale or proportion is changed, and the final rig must be adjusted, the proper procedure is:

1. Unhide all bone layers.
2. Make VIS- (visualization helper) bones selectable,
3. Adjust all bones in the rig to new character proportion,
   • If you use Complex Arm/Leg Rig, so that the hand and feet use 2 bones for each segments, carefully readjust both segments, keeping them aligned,
4. Reset all constraints affected by the change, especially Stretch To,
5. Reset unselectable all VIS- bones.
6. Re-adjust custom shapes, because length change affects custom shape's size.

So, confirm character scale, and try not to adjust rig scale after generating. That'll save a lot of your time.