So I understand that mirror goes above Armature. This allows the Ear.L to be moved and deform the mesh on one side without being mirrored on the other. However I would have thought it would be more useful to have the movement mirrored as the default behaviour as per demo when the armature was placed above the mirror. Bit confused here. Is this order always the way to set-up and then to mirror movement there's another workflow to go on top of this set-up? Or would you order these modifiers based on whether you want the animation mirrored
I was just looking at the ears and thinking if I animated one ear then I'd want that movement mirrored to the other. I get that sometimes you don't want movements mirrored. Hence the question - if you do want mirrored movement, then do you change the order of the modifier or is the modifier stack always set like this to not mirror movement and there's an additional step to mirror movement you add on?
Mirror modifier is for the mesh. The armature is always after it. Otherwise the armature only has 1/2 the vertices it can access.
Depending on the type of mirrored movement as to which method works best for your use case. In this case the x mirror is the best solution. This option is under the options drop down in the header or the option panel under the tools tab of the n-panel(technically called the sidebar).
The method used most in character animation is the copy paste flipped method. That is covered in the rigging course.
Dwayne is spot on here. (although he said "rigging course" which he meant to say "animation course" - but we will forgive him for the typo :) )
The Mirror Modifier is for the mesh. (duplicates the vertices)
The Armature Modifier moves those vertices.
If the vertices don't exist when the armature takes effect - then the .R bones won't deform the mesh.
If the mirror is after the armature then the left side bones will move both sides - BUT NOT in the way you want. They will pivot from the left side thus making a right mess of things.
You can mirror the pose movements on symmetrical bones with this option in POSE MODE.
It's next to the butterfly.
