In the above example, I am attempting to create a more accurate rig structure for the rib cage. There is probably a much simpler way to go about this that involves scaling and placement, but that is not the point of this post (although, if anyone is able and willing to demonstrate, that is certainly welcome). In doing so, I finally produced an example in which two distinct ZSpheres from separate chains behave as though they were one.
Because it seems as though it should be possible to combine these, instead, I am hoping to generate a conversation regarding the following:
– proposed solutions that can be implemented at some point that will allow for combining ZSpheres
– sufficiently detailed explanations for why the idea and/or action of combining ZSpheres would be problematic/buggy/impractical/unnecessary/unintuitive, if applicable
What I gather from similar posts is that merging or otherwise performing a combine/link/parent/etc. operation on two or more ZSpheres is not currently possible as a feature (see: Combining/merging Zspheres? from back in 2009). It occurs to me that this would be useful for generating relevant meshes and rigs which could, or might, depend upon or benefit from the creation of merged joints or complex chain structures (like a rib cage).
It’s probably not so simple, but it seems like each ZSphere is generated with its own origin point because they appear to scale and rotate with that behavior upon creation, so would it be possible to assign and store a pixol or pixol-like property to each origin point, allowing them to then be combined, welded, or merged using that information?
Alternatively or in addition, when rigging, would it be possible to start multiple ZSphere chains as separate subtools as if they were individual “bones”, then merge them down, and if necessary, assign parent/child links?
In order to get your suggestions into the hands of the people who develop the program, you must submit it as a feature request to the developers via support ticket, linked to your registered copy of the software.