Tags are essentially labels that are added on guide joints to identify and group joints. For example, we could tag the shoulder, elbow, and hand joints on the left side of the skeleton with the string L_Arm, which groups these joints as a body part. This tag is then used by rig components downstream to identify groups of joints to apply the rig functionality to. In this way, tags are a way for the skeleton to communicate information to the rig components.

Tags are stored in the tags string array attribute on the guide joints, and are created using the Attribute Adjust Array SOP. In the network editor, “Attribute Adjust Tags” is an alias to the Attribute Adjust Array SOP.

Properties are information stored on guide joints that are picked up later by rig components to configure the controls they create. For example, if you want a character’s finger controls to have a box shape, you could set the control shape property for the finger joints in the guide skeleton. When the FK rig component downstream creates controls for the rig, it will pick up this property on the finger guide joints and create box shape controls.

Properties are stored in the properties dictionary attribute on the guide joints, and are created using the Attribute Adjust Dictionary SOP. The following properties can be set: