Week 3: A Study of Inverse Kinematics

Session Review

Returning to this week's academic session, the class and I continued our analytical study of rigging, which I managed to understand the theoretical applications of the human leg and how it is engineered.

Further, despite the difficulty, I am facing as I learn to rig my nomad character, tools such as the "expression editor" and set driven key tools are beneficial in order to change the attributes of the joints and the speed and direction in which they are animated.

However; I need to take the time to practise the techniques and procedures in rigging a leg in my own free time since  I normally take notes and document the various software procedures in order to completely comprehend the techniques.

In addition, the issue I faced loading the Rapid Rig script into Mayas was resolved on my university computer by simply placing the icon graphics into the appropriate Maya "icons" folder. Furthermore, the lecturer expressed that a career in rigging is profitable although you need to know to possess a full comprehension and familiarity with the expression editor (coding) and anatomy of objects

Leg Joint Diagram

Session Notes

Putting RapidRig/Wiz Control Icons in icon folder

MAC

1. Hold down Alt go to Go > Library
2. Select Preferences Folder
3. Autodesk
4. maya
5. 2016
6. prefs
7. Drag icon graphics into icon folder.

The spline toll is normally used for tentacles , snakes etc

Create IK Handles is the basic and standard form of Inverse Kinematic tools in maya.

• In order to animate joints properly you need three sub divisions (lines) in the appropriate joint area

Transferring Maya 2016 files into later versions.

• Save file as ASCII  file in order to transfer 2016 file into a 2015 file.

References

https://sites.google.com/site/cgi2rigging/week-2

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/maya/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2015/ENU/Maya/files/CSS-Connect-joints-htm.html

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/maya/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2016/ENU/Maya/files/GUID-251640EA-AACC-4F1B-A341-297F0F4CEFE4-htm.html

By Sebastian Jones