Rigid Binding or Soft Binding
 

Er... straightforward question really, but I was wondering which flavour to use for a games character. In me book it shows soft binding but I always thought that rigid was more appropriate for games...

Anyone care to shed some light... I personally think I prefer rigid. I cannot quite get the hang of Paint Weights :(

it depends on the game, but you can use either most of the time.

My 'Character Rigging & Animation' book is aimed at Maya 4 and goes at great length to explain using the Rigid Binding technique. It also goes on about the Smooth Binding method.

It seems to me however that Alias is pushing the smooth method as the better of the two and that rigid is being phased out since it is the older method.

Is this true?

Not that I know of. We use both at work.

Agggh! But which do you prefer? Or do you find that each method is more suited to a particular senario?

The lower the polys, the more I might use Rigid. For the higher poly stuff, like 3000+ polys, I might go more for smooth. It really depends a lot on the individual model.