Research & Development for 3D & the Web

Arm Rig with Controls Create an IK from Shoulder to Wrist. This IK needs to be a RPSolver (rotation plane) IK type Create a circle shape it however you want freeze transformations and delete history select joint, select circle – point constraint & orient constraint delete the constraints from the side panel Create a ‘null object group’ by SPACE > Edit > Group do the same thing and select joint, then null object group – point & orient constraints and delete Read more [...]

My Control and Joint Hierarchy for a biped.

This is the way I’ve had this working so far..

** will fill this out once this is finalized for current project.

To add an attribute such as an extra rotate or a fold you can use the Modify > Add Attribute Tool. Simply select the object you wish to add it to and then give it a name and if required some bounds.. A good example for this is when you want to make a hand and have fingers which close into a fist.. You can add in each finger. It's also very useful to make a shelf button (or else you keep running the mel script) "select -hi;" This selects the entire heirarchy so you can rotate the entire joint Read more [...]

To get rid of certain channel components, you can do the following:

Go to Window > General Editors > Channel Control.

By selecting the components on the left and using the right >> arrow to move them to the hidden area, you can get rid of them from the possible keyable components and clean up your animation area. Generally for humanoid rig, you will want to get rid of the visible and scale components.

Once you have finished creating a rig in Maya, you need to orient your joints in a sensible manner rather than just using Maya’s Default settings which are usually incorrect unless you are particularly good or plan how you will draw the joints very carefully.

1. Press ‘F8′ on your Keyboard to enter Component Mode.

2. Click the “?” (question mark icon) which should be under your menu bar somewhere to bring up the controlls.

3. Use the controls to orient your joints

4. all done.