HI!! I'm new to blender and have a very beginner level question that is confusing to me.
I'm rigging a character and currently have the character meshes rigged to the meta rig.
However, in moving on to weight painting, I'm seeing tutorials where the meshes are parented to the actual rig, not the metarig. Depending on which one I rig the meshes to, the character moves differently.
What is the difference between a rig and metarig? Help!!
The meta rig is just a guide for placement of deformation bones for the generated rig, If you want a basic fk control that's good enough. The rig itself consists of deformation, Inverse, and forward kinematics, plus tweaks bones, if you are interested in what the rig contains look through the bone layers, and the individual bones and constraints.
Should I be parenting the clothing meshes to the rig or metarig?
I have everything parented to the metarig right now and I am able to adjust the position of the mesh accurately by moving the metarig. However, repositioning the actual rig has no effect on my character's poses. Have I made a mistake through parenting everything to the metarig?
Yeah if you parented to the metarig then you can only control the mesh through those bones. Think of it like a scaffolding or mold from which the rig is constructed, and not the finished part If you're happy with the metarig just delete the rig and use that, keep in mind that the clothing should be controlled by whatever's moving the body. If you want to use the rig just unparent the metarig (alt+p I believe) and parent the rig to the mesh.