Rigging.

As the 3d model is ready, it is time to start to work towards animating it. To be able to do that, a skeleton and controllers are needed.  

Rigging workspace in Maya is the place where we work now. There are Quick tools available on a top shelf in Maya (or their longer versions which are under the Skeleton – Create joints, top menu). We start with creating joints. Joints appear as spheres, and between the two spheres we have a bone. Display- Animation – Joint Size is where we can adjust how big the joints are displayed for us (this option does not affect the actual skeleton but can make work easier for us as increases visibility of the joints). 

Parenting and hierarchy rules apply when building a skeleton. That means that when we build the skeleton and add joints, we create dependencies and therefore, when we move hips, we move the whole leg.  The leg we have built consists of the following joints: Base – Left Hip – Left Leg – Left Foot –Left Foot End. It is important to name all joints (and other elements in the scene) accordingly, as well as add the word End to the end of the structure – as good practice.  

To move an individual joint, we press a letter D on a keyboard. We have a pivot controller then and can adjust the position of a chosen joint. Snap to Projected Center option in Maya helps us to place the join in the middle of the required body part, if needed.  

Modify – Freeze transformations – is a useful option where we freeze rotations; translate x,y,z is never frozen in rigging as we need joints to move, so to change their positions. 

Mirror Joint Options (Skeleton – Mirror Joints) is a solution we use to create the other side of the skeleton. After the first side is built (here we started with the base and left hips and leg), we then mirror it on to the other side of the skeleton – with the name appropriately automatically corrected (search for left word and replace it with right word).  

We then move on to building the spine, head, and hands bones to have the skeleton completed.  

To have body parts connected, we need to select the chosen joint and the one we want to be a parent, and press P. This way we build a bigger, connected structure. 

If this process is successfully completed, we will see a green checked mark next to the image of the skeleton on the right-hand side, indicating a status of the skeleton. 

Next, as we want the geometry to be controlled by the joints we have created, we need to complete the process called skin binding (Skin – Bind Skin). It is good practice to reset the tool, before clicking the apply button. Thanks to the skin binding every joint movement influences our geometry and as a result we can see our character’s body parts moving. After the skin is bound, the skeleton changes its colour to a rainbow style colours.  

Skin binding is a straightforward process, the problematic part is the skin weights painting, which takes a lot of time and patience. Skin weights is the influence the joint has on geometry and its look when moved. Too much influence causes major deformations; too little influence prevents the geometry from movement. To access this tool, we need to select the Skin, and then Paint Skin Weights, where we open the tool menu. We then see all the influences and can work with them, until we achieve satisfying results. White colour means 100% influence, the black one is no influence.  

The next step towards having our character ready to be animated is creating Inverse Kinematic Handles (Skeleton – Create IK Handle- then select two points we want to connect with the handle; shoulder to wrist; hips to toes as examples). We use them to move our model’s body parts, for example its leg.  

Then we build controllers we will use to animate IK Handles we have just created. We only use controllers in the end. To make a controller, we start with building a NURBS primitive and shift selecting it along with the IK Handle we want it to be linked to; we then match their transformations (Modify – Match Transformations). Once we are happy with the position of the controller, we freeze its position. Next, to connect both, we select our shape first, then shift select the IK Handle, click Constrain – Point. After that the IK will only respond when we move the controller it is assigned to. The NURBS shape is just a reference, it is not visible in the animation. After we have created all the controllers, we have our model ready to be animated. 

Quick Rig. 

After this full-length rigging process, we were presented with the Quick Rig, which is much faster as Maya does most of the required job.   

We start the process by clicking on a Quick Rig Tool and choosing Step-by-step option. After adding our character to the Geometry field, we will get all the joints that we need to distribute (as the auto rig is based on a human skeleton and might not work for us without some adjustments). When we are happy with the result, we press Create/Update, and the skeleton is created. Apart from the skeleton, the program creates IK Handles and controllers for us. Once we are happy with the effect, we tell Maya to bind the skin and the work is done for us. This short process leads to the same results we have achieved during the full rigging, skin binding, and creating controllers in a long, traditional way.   

Having the knowledge about both methods of rigging character in Maya allows me to work more confidently on my current one, and future projects. 

During this session I worked on a model provided by our lecturer, as my own was not ready yet. It was a great learning session, with loads of new information to process. I am glad I have access to the recording of this exercise, so I can go back to it and work at my own pace, once my character is finished.