Rig does not move the mesh I'm new to Blender so not sure what I'm doing wrong.  I've tried at least a 100 times to rig a human like character using Rigify but in vain.  Can someone please help me and let me know what I've missed...  You're help will be really appreciated.

I've uploaded the rigged and non-rigged model and uploaded here -


Non-Rigged model NON Rigged Cyclops model
Rigged model Rigged Cyclops model


Thanks.
Try Joining the Meshes Before Parenting to Rigify

The reason why parenting may not have worked is because your mesh is in multiple parts. 

Joining the meshes together before parenting to the rig should fix your problem.

For your cyclops file, here's what I did:

Select one mesh, press 'SHIFT+G' choose 'type'

Join your meshes. 'CTRL+J'

Press 'Tab' to go to edit mode

Remove doubles. press 'A' until everything is selected > 'W' > 'remove doubles'

Delete all vertex groups from the vertex groups panel

Delete all armature modifiers from the modifier in modifier panel

Select your armature and set it to pose mode. CTRL + tab

Select the mesh, then the armature, press CTRL+P, choose 'automatic weights'

Now your mesh should deform when you pose the armature in pose mode.

If and when you edit the weight values for each bone/vertex group, the deformation bones are on layer 29 of the bone layers ( not the regular layers )

Good Luck

Btw, cool model, where is it from?

Here's a link to your working file:


Here's a general video about setting up rigify in general :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYiAd_08-0k&amp;t=140s