STEP BY STEP PROTECT YOUR RIGS!
01 SHOW ALL
The first thing you need to do is go to Display>show>all and see what you are working with. This simple step will be done by the animator on numerous occasions, so even if you’ve pressed Control and H and think you’ve hidden parts of the rig, they won’t be. Any of the base systems that you can now see will need to be locked away.
03 VISIBILITY ATTRIBUTES
Somewhere on your rig you should have a series of attributes used to control which areas of the rig are visible. Connecting these to the visibility attributes on key groups, like the skeleton and rig systems, will lock their visibility to those attributes. This means Show>all will no longer make them visible, and they will remain safely locked away.
02 CREATE A DO_NOT_TOUCH GROUP
A well-organised hierarchy is key to maintaining a clean rig, and taking the time to place things in the correct groups will also help when locking it down.
Make sure to keep important elements like rig systems, the skeleton, morph targets and main models in a DO_NOT_ TOUCH group. This should make it clear that this group is not to be accessed by anyone.
04 LOCK THE MODELS TOO
Another step you should take is to make sure the models are visible but not selectable. Again, a custom attribute with three options, Locked, Enabled and Wireframe, should be connected to each model’s Display>drawing Overrides> Display Type attribute. This will move between three states for you, the main being locked and unlocked. Also remember to make sure Enable Overrides is checked too.