How do you document your rigs?

[Daxel]

The other day I opened an old complex rig and I didn't understand half of what I was looking at. Why did I make some of those complex masks, references, actions, duplicates...? So, yeah. Documentation.

Since then I've been using comments. I like the idea of only seeing them when I hover the mouse over the specific layer, that's perfect, but I have two complains:

The comment automatically dissapears too soon to read most of my comments. That's painful.

Clicking on the balloon icon on the right of the layer panel to quickly add a comment is very handy, and I often I do it to add something to an existing comment, but in that case I can only see an empty text box instead of the comment I wrote, so I have to write it all again to add the part I wanted to add, or close it and open the layer settings to see my text.

Also I still want to be able to document bones or actions too.

What do you guys do to document your rigs? Do you like to use note layers, comments, text layers, a script, or any kind of documentation technique inside Moho?

[Greenlaw]

I always have all the character bones and Smart Bones clearly labeled, which is usually enough because I try to keep my techniques reasonably consistent. When I have something unusual going on in the rig or I've applied a new technique, I'll add a Text layer (or a Note layer if it's short enough,) for it. For anything more complicated I may prepare a 1- or 2-page google doc with illustrations, and include a note in this rig that the document exists. This definitely helps, especially if it's been a long time since I last opened the file.

Generally speaking, I try to keep things reasonably standardized for the way I work. This really helps when I'm working with other animators so they can pick up the rig and go without a lot of instruction. When I make a rig for other artists to work with, I almost always prepare a 1- or 2-page document, especially when there's something unusual about the rig.

Oh, I also like to prepare a quick 'demo' anim of the rig to show off the basics and anything unique about the rig.

The Puss rig at the beginning of this reel is a good example: https://vimeo.com/269815494?share=copy

Also the demo segment for the T-Rex from Boss Baby (starting at 1:45): https://vimeo.com/364548450?share=copy

When I create something like this, I'll include a link to the video in the doc for the animator to refer to.

Hope this helps.

[Daxel]

I always have all the character bones and Smart Bones clearly labeled, which is usually enough because I try to keep my techniques reasonably consistent.

Yeah I'm working on my own acronyms for certain techniques and concepts for the names of the bones, actions, layers etc. But sometimes it's not enough.

When I have something unusual going on in the rig or I've applied a new technique, I'll add a Text layer (or a Note layer if it's short enough,) for it.

You like those more than using comments? I don't like having the entire text as the name of the text layer or the note layer. It's a deal breaker for me. Do you solve that problem somehow?

[Greenlaw]

You like those more than using comments? I don't like having the entire text as the name of the text layer or the note layer. It's a deal breaker for me. Do you solve that problem somehow?

Hi Daxel,

You know, using Comments probably makes more sense since they allow a lot of info and it's less obtrusive in the UI. I use Text and Note layers to make things obvious to the person importing the file for the first time (or to me if it's been a long time since I last opened the file.) But from now on, I think I'll add only a single Note layer to let me know there are comments embedded in certain layers. Thanks for the tip!

For lengthy info, however, I do find keeping a separate document is more helpful. I mentioned using Google Docs to document but actually I export a PDF from the doc and keep it in the 'master' rig's folder...this makes it easy to find. I also put a link to the original Google Doc in the PDF so I can easily find that version again to make any revisions.

[Daxel]

But from now on, I think I'll add only a single Note layer to let me know there are comments embedded in certain layers. Thanks for the tip!

Oh, I don't know if this was like this by default but on Preferences - Layers/objects I have the "Show column Comments" activated, and that shows an empty balloon icon at the right of every layer that changes to a balloon with three dots inside when the layer has a comment.

For lengthy info, however, I do find keeping a separate document is more helpful. I mentioned using Google Docs to document but actually I export a PDF from the doc and keep it in the 'master' rig's folder...this makes it easy to find. I also put a link to the original Google Doc in the PDF so I can easily find that version again to make any revisions.

Yeah, I make heavy use of OneNote for windows and android to take my notes about every program, project, everything. I like the tip about exporting a PDF inside the rig's folder. But if the rig is not going to be used by someone else, I like having the rig documentation inside moho as much as possible.

[Greenlaw]

Oh, I don't know if this was like this by default but on Preferences - Layers/objects I have the "Show column Comments" activated, and that shows an empty balloon icon at the right of every layer that changes to a balloon with three dots inside when the layer has a comment.

Thanks for the tip! I prefer to minimize the number of columns in the Layers window but I'll check it out.

BTW, there's also an option in Preferences that will show the Comments 'tool tip' style when you hover over a layer. TBH, I don't really want the comments popping up every time I hover over a layer, but there's another option there to make it show any existing tags for each layer. This feature was useful to me for a while but don't really bother with it anymore.

Anyway, using a single Note layer to let me know that the Comment exists should be fine for me.

So how do you like using One Note?

I been using Evernote for forever, and I have literally tens of thousands of notes in it. I love the tagging system which lets me manage all that data easily. The one thing I would complain about is the cost except I somehow got locked into a significantly cheaper annual rate which I think is fair. However, if I had to pay the current full price, I would probably consider switching to One Note. It looks more visual than Evernote, which seems appealing.

I also use Google Docs a lot, mainly for spreadsheets and certain types of journals. It's free and works very well, but unfortunately no tagging, just folders. I guess if I had to give up Evernote, I might move everything over to Google Docs...but I dread losing all my tagging data.

[Daxel]

BTW, there's also an option in Preferences that will show the Comments 'tool tip' style when you hover over a layer. TBH, I don't really want the comments popping up every time I hover over a layer, but there's another option there to make it show any existing tags for each layer. This feature was useful to me for a while but don't really bother with it anymore.

Anyway, using a single Note layer to let me know that the Comment exists should be fine for me.

So how do you like using One Note?

The comments column is tiny, only shows the balloon icon, so I like to have it activated and see the comments hovering over the icon, so I can have the tooltips hovering a layer disabled.

I LOVE OneNote. What I like the most is that I can use many different kinds of information in the same page, like a hand drawing, a table, an image, a youtube video (that shows the thumbnail and you can reproduce inside the page), an audio recording... everything mixed like you can hand draw over the image, make an arrow pointing to the audio icon, whatever you want.

You can export everything to PDF and the tagging and its search engine work great. There are premade tags that are very useful, for example: you can add a "?" icon that means question, I use it when I don't understand something, and the task icon (the checkbox that you can check) is also an automatic "task" tag, so then you can go to "search tags" and you can see a nice summary of every task (you can choose all tasks or only not completed tasks) and every question from all your different notes or filtered to one note, one section or whatever. That way you don't need to write all the tasks in one same place, you can write them on different parts or pages where it's relevant and then look at this summary when you want to see them together.