Chapter 3. Character Skeleton Setup

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This chapter shows you how to create complex controls for animating each of the main parts of your character model. Creating such controls involves many of the tasks that a character setup artist does on a daily basis, including such things as drawing skeletons, creating Inverse Kinematics (IK) handles, constraining objects, using control icons, and parenting objects into a complex hierarchy. After completing this chapter, you should have a good understanding of all the basic techniques that a character setup artist frequently uses to create good character controls.

The skeleton controls shown in this chapter create a good general-purpose character rig (see Figure 3.1). The basic hierarchy was based on a rig shown by a Blue Sky animator who taught at the School of Visual Arts back in 1996. (I have unfortunately forgotten that animator's name.) I've been developing and adding to the rig functionality since that time. Although nothing on this rig was taken directly from any other rig, ideas for controls have come from a variety of sources. I have gotten inspiration from colleagues, students, industry presentations, and Alias|Wavefront master classes by people such as Jason Schleifer at SIGGRAPH (who used controls similar to the ones shown for the advanced backbone on the Lord of the Rings characters). The complete rig presented in this chapter incorporates a sampling of all the basic kinds of controls that you would be required to create for a production-ready character.

3.1. In this chapter, you create a general-purpose rig with controls for each part of your character's body.

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Keep in mind that there is no perfect all-purpose skeleton rig that will work well in all situations. In a real production, character setup artists create rigs for particular purposes. It is not uncommon for the main character in an animation to have a variety of rigs, with controls designed for particular actions in a scene. For instance, there might be separate rigs for walking, tumbling, lifting, and lip-syncing. However, an understanding of how to build all the controls in a general-purpose rig better prepares you to create more production-specific rigs.



Maya Character Creation. Modeling and Animation Controls
Maya Character Creation: Modeling and Animation Controls
ISBN: 0735713448
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 75
Authors: Chris Maraffi

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