Posts: 3,860
Thanks: 8536 in 67 Posts
28 Achievements
Hi there!
Basically how I would explain them is, when we would translate this into what you see in blender:
See how the knees have these joints looking thingies? Maya has this option (And blender too but it's somewhat more hidden) that are called "IK targets" or also called "IK Switches". These are especially common for rigs around the knees or specific bending areas, which in this case is the thighs and the shoulders. I always found this tutorial very helpful to understand what the heck I was doing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6ViCN_sPVE
If you really wanna find some references regarding how EA controls their IK targets like that, it's always good to check existing animations that, say, make it so a plate is being put onto the sim's hand, or maybe grabbing a book, sitting down on a chair etc. Or just a regular animation
Now there are a few bones here that might make you think "Uhh... what?" but here are a few fun facts:
- Some bones are seen as slots. So b_spine_0 or b_pelvis is a very popular slot to add visual effects like sparkles or bees right onto the sim.
- Some objects correspond right to specific bones. So for example, once I made these pet beds, and in order to have the cat/dog sleep ONTO the bed rather than inside the bed, I had to shift that slot. Mainly because the object's slot was trying to find the "b_Root_bind" bone that the pet has (And sims as well)
- The RootOffset basically makes it so that the game knows "Oh! So if the sim walks, I have to make sure that no one specifically passes the sim this far!" Now as you can see it's not exactly as accurate
But it's just for routing purposes really as far as I can tell
- b_rootExport makes it so that whenever the animation/pose is being fired in the game (So say with poseplayer you just activate it), then the game knows that the sim has to be ON the ground, and this right foot should be ON this height whereas maybe the left foot needs to be lower. So these data thingies are more for the game rather than for animating. that's why it doesn't animate with the RIG, same for other things that are there but don't animate.
- Other bones like "b_upper_skirt" really are just for casparts so that's also kind of a data thingy. if this wouldn't be there the CASpart wouldn't be animating with your animation
Hope this sort of clears it!