Introduction to Rigging Using Maya

Hello everyone, this semester starts 3D Modeling and Animation 2.  It will be focused on rigging, advanced modeling, and greater rendering techniques.  This post is briefly going over the content of Digital Tutors' "Beginner's Guide to Rigging in Maya."

First thing Delano showed us how to do was to correctly establish parent/child relationships.  You can make an object a parent by first clicking one object (your child), shift clicking another object (your parent), and pressing the "p" key.

Then we needed to learn about correctly placing your pivot point in your object.  To move your pivot point you simply have to press "insert" on a regular key board and "fn + right arrow key" on a mac keyboard.  Press "W" to move it wherever you'd like.  Press the pivot key again after you are finished placing it to get out out pivot mode.  This is what it looks like correctly pivoted.

 

If you want to group all your pieces together select the objects you want to group and press "g".

Next we need to add joints in the robotic arms.  Select the "animation" menu in Maya, then click on the "Skeleton" option in the top menu and click on "Joint Tool".  It is easier to build the joints in the top view (or front view depending on the rig).  Click to create a joint and then click and drag to where you want the next joint to be.  When you are finished creating joints press "enter" on your keyboard.

After you have created the joints you will need to parent the object to the joints.  Click on the object first and then "shift" click the joint it corresponds with.  Once you have parented the object to the joints this is what it should look/move like.

Next the we went over IK Handles.  The instructor explained first that FK (or Forward Kinematics) is just rotating an object's existing joint.  You can find the "IK Handle Tool" under "Skeleton" in your animation menu.  IK stands for Inverse Kinematics.  You place two points on either end of where you want your object to bend.  You will want to click on the "IK Handle Tool"'s box to change the "Current solver" to ikRPsolver (RP = rotating plane).  Once you place your two points, your object should move similar to this arm.

If you want your hand's position to stay locked, simply click on you IK Handle and press "control + a".  You can then scroll down to "IK Handle Attributes" and turn the "Stickiness" to "sticky".  Now watch what happens.

You can now grab the other side of the object and the hand will stay put.

Next we created control objects.  For this tutorial the instructor used a "nurbs circle".  When you create the nurbs circle make sure that the move tool is activated.  Click in the center box of all the move arrows and then hold down the "v" key.  If you hold "v" and middle mouse click you can snap the nurbs circle to the IK Handle.

Next freeze your transforms and delete you history, this makes everything cleaner.  Click on your nurbs circle and shift select your IK Handle and then go up to the animation menu and select "Constrain/Point".  This will give your nurbs circle control of moving and freeze the transforms of your IK Handle.  Then click on your nurbs circle again and shift click your hand and select "Constrain/Orient(options)/Maintain offset".  This is how the rig now acts when using the nurbs circle as a control object.

 

In the next part of the tutorial series Delano started with a different already rigged arm.

The main point, the lesson was trying to make, was how to attach an object to its joints so that rotating a joint would smoothly rotate and deform your object.  Here is a video showing how to skin the arm to the joints.

When you bend your arm joints at the elbow some of the geometry caves in.  So to counteract that you have to paint weights on the object.  Here is a video showing how you can edit your skin and how painting weights can help an object move more naturally.

The last video was just a recap of what we learned following these lessons and the potential that rigging can have on an object.  I finished the course, yay!