Maya Timeslider

Tips

Friday, 25 September 2009 21:51

If you're not familiar with Maya's timeslider this well help.

A.W.O.L Rigging

Blog

Friday, 28 August 2009 20:10

This is a model designed and built by my good friend Jamie Lloyd. I'm going to rig this model then animate some walk and run cycles.

T-pose vs Relaxed pose for Rigging

Blog

Wednesday, 06 May 2009 15:24

It is said that if the mesh is modelled in a relaxed pose (also known as the motorbike rider pose) the rigging artist will be able to achieve much better deformations than that of the T-pose. Although, the modeller must be careful not to exceed the relaxed position; if the limb is close to the extreme bend then it will, in my short experience, become problematic when trying to weight the skin.

What is also important is that the modeller creates the correct relaxed shape; if the shape of the bent limb is like a rubber hose pipe, it will also be problematic for correct deformation to be achieved through skinning.

The image below shows an arm that is bent too much to towards the extreme, and also suffers from the rubber hose pipe problem. I have little experience in rigging so far, but in my opinion it is impossible to gain good deformations when modelled like this:

Controller Visibility Switching

Blog

Wednesday, 06 May 2009 14:32

I wrote an if/else expression to switch off the visibility of the IK controls if FK controls are being used, and vice versa.

Here’s the script:

if (char01_master_ctl.IkRightArm == 0)
{
char01_r_armFK_wrist_ctl.visibility = 1;
char01_r_armFK_elbow_ctl.visibility = 1;
char01_r_armFK_shoulder_ctl.visibility = 1;
}

else
{
char01_r_armFK_wrist_ctl.visibility = 0;
char01_r_armFK_elbow_ctl.visibility = 0;
char01_r_armFK_shoulder_ctl.visibility = 0;
}