Is it possible to make a ragdoll from scratch using primitives? I built one out of cylinders and spheres, taking a best guess at what some parts like “root” and “spine” ought to be, and I got pretty close but it didn’t hold together quite right. Does anyone know what all the parts should look like and how they should be placed together?
Yes. Ragdolls from a bunch of spheres and capsules … is fine. A ragdoll is just joints (often characterJoints) and colliders. There’s no right way to make one. It’s an art.
For example, in real 3D models, shoulder bones are sometime skipped, or sometimes each shoulder gets a chain of two (one more than in real life.) Hip bones are optional.
In takes a while to figure out the motion, stiffness, springyness, swing axis … settings for the joints, as well the the gap between colliders and joint position. If you like, use the wizard on a demo model (I’ve never seen or looked for the ragdoll wizard, but people tell me it exists) and look what settings it makes.