Summary

Character animation with Maya offers a rich tablet of possibilities and immense control. In this chapter, we've explored some of the standard techniques of character animation, including the following:

• Joint creation Building linked skeleton joints.

• IK setup Specifying parts of a skeleton that will behave with Inverse Kinematics.

• Rigid binding Attaching a skin to a skeleton with a rigid bind.

• Applying flexors Smoothing the joints of a rigid bind by applying a flexor.

• Creating character animation Adding animation keys to your skeleton to make your character move.

• Using the Graph Editor Refining your character animation by looking at the graph of the skeleton's controllers.

• Using Trax Building more complex animation from clips of simple animation.

• Using Blend Shapes Making surfaces deform into another shape using Blend Shape deformers.