Rigging Workshop

Rigging workshop with Sang:

Who is in charge of character rigging?

FK = Forward Kinematics. (if you want to move the arm, start at root shoulder, then move to elbow, then to wrist...)
IK= Inverse Kinematics. (if you want to move the leg, can move the foot which will move/make everything else follow. Good if the character is holding something, if move body, hand will stay where it was)

Squash and Stretch = needs deformers on the joints.

Make a rig as simple as possible! Only do what you need!

Build things real scale to allow lighting to act better with mia X material etc...

Open Maya file.
Set Project.
PAL (25fps)
Incremental save - up to limit 20.

ctrl + shift + rmb on joint to swap axis to world.

MEL: select -hi; (to select all individual joints, by selecting roots first)

Display - Transform Display - Local Rotation Axis

Select root thumb, F8 component, switch on question mark, press a letter Axis, use rotate tool to change thumb rotation axis.

Hold 'v' to snap nurbs circle to joint.
Delete history on Nurbs circle, then freeze transformation.
When constraining nurbs circle to joint, make sure 'Maintain Offset' is ticked on 'Orient'.

Binding the Mesh:
- Make sure the geometry has clean history before binding model to joints!
- Use low poly model for painting skin weights.