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[Animation Rigging] Fix Bone Stretching in Damped Transform Constraints

Solution

animation systemskeletal meshanimation riggingforward kinematics

Unity 2019.4.x - Unity 6.3.x

Published 15 days ago

Issue

 When using the Damped Transform constraint in the Animation Rigging package, your model may experience unintended stretching. This occurs because Damping causes the constrained bone to lag behind its parent, increasing the distance between joints and distorting the mesh.

Eliminate bone stretching in Damped Transform by setting the Damping value to 0 or using rotation-only constraints.

Explanation

The Damping property in the Damped Transform component creates a procedural lag between the source and the constrained object. In a joint hierarchy, this latency causes the child bone to fall behind the parent’s movement, effectively increasing the distance between them and stretching the vertex weights of the mesh.

  1. Select your rig bone containing the Damped Transform component.
  2. Locate the Damping property within the constraint settings in the Inspector.
  3. Set the Damping value to 0.0 to eliminate the positional lag entirely.
  4. If you require rotational Damping without the stretching effect, replace the component with a Multi-Rotation Constraint to isolate transform axes.

Additional Tips:

  • Ensure your model scale is normalized to (1,1,1) in the import settings to prevent mathematical errors in the Rig Builder.
  • Verify that the Rig Builder component is properly evaluating the rig hierarchy in the correct execution order.
  • Use the Weight slider to subtly blend the Damping effect if a small amount of lag is desired without breaking the mesh.

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Content inspired by a Unity discussion post.