Character Rigging for Production in 3ds Max
In this course, we will cover the tools and techniques for setting up character rigs in 3ds Max. Software required: 3ds Max 2010.
What you'll learn
In this course, we will cover the tools and techniques for setting up character rigs in 3ds Max. Step by step, we'll construct a control rig that is robust and animator-friendly. We'll learn everything from proper bone placement and techniques for troubleshooting, to learning fun ways we can preserve volume as our mesh deforms and how to make our controls efficient and easy to comprehend. We'll also learn how to create customized quad menus and toolbars that will help speed up our workflow, so we can focus primarily on building our control rigs with the best practices. Software required: 3ds Max 2010.
Table of contents
- Preparing the Scene 7m
- Creating Leg Bones 10m
- Completing the Leg Bones 8m
- Working with Fins and Adding a Toe Bend Bone 9m
- Setting up Initial Controls for the Feet 8m
- Constraining the Foot Bones to the Reverse-lock Helpers 7m
- Building the Primary Foot Control 7m
- Establishing Secondary Foot Controls 10m
- Starting on Our Foot Bank Rig 9m
- Locking Controllers 5m
- Setting up Custom Parameters for the Foot Bank 13m
- Using Custom Parameters to Drive the Toe Bend 8m
- Adding Knee Controls 5m
- Setting up Association Curves for the Knee Controls 9m
- Creating the Curve That Will Drive Our Spine Bones 8m
- Connecting Helpers to the Spine Curve 5m
- Building the Bones for the Spine 9m
- Confining the Spine Bones 5m
- Deforming the Spine Curve 6m
- Establishing Hip and Chest Controls 7m
- Setting up the Center of Gravity Control 8m
- Choosing a Suitable Axis Order 4m
- Finishing the Spine Rig 11m
- Creating a Global Control 7m
- Working on the Head Rig 10m
- Completing the Head Rig 4m
- Creating a Control for the Blinks 8m
- Wrapping up the Blink Controls 10m
- Building Eye Controls 9m
- Finishing Our Eye Rig 8m
- Starting on the Facial Controls 9m
- Building Facial Controls 9m
- Completing the Facial Controls 9m
- Constructing the Shoulder and Arm Chains 8m
- Creating the Left Hand Bones 10m
- Setting up Ik/fk Blending Switches 3m
- Building the Ik/fk Chains 6m
- Mirroring the Shoulders and Arms 9m
- Cleaning up the Shoulder and Arm Bones 5m
- Constraining the Arms to the Ik/fk Chains 5m
- Blending Between Ik/fk Modes 7m
- Rigging Ik Arm Controls 6m
- Utilizing a Custom Parameter to Control the Elbow 7m
- Creating Fk Arm Controls 7m
- Finishing the Fk Arms 9m
- Setting up the Wrists 11m
- Establishing Shoulder Controls 6m
- Starting on Finger Controls 10m
- Finishing the Left Fingers 11m
- Finishing the Right Fingers 14m
- Building Twist Bones for the Arms 7m
- Completing the Left Arm Twist Bones 2m
- Finishing the Left Arm's Twist Rig 9m
- Finishing the Right Arm's Twist Rig 11m
- Cleaning up the Control Rig 13m
- Enveloping the Character 5m
- Blocking in the Deformations of the Left Leg 8m
- Setting the Initial Weights of the Spine 10m
- Focusing on the Weights of the Neck and Head / Correcting Bone Skewing 5m
- Modifying the Deformations of the Neck and Head 4m
- Refining the Weights of the Left Eyebrow 8m
- Finishing the Left Eyebrow 5m
- Saving Envelope Weights 6m
- Editing the Deformations of the Index Finger 8m
- Correcting the Weights of the Pinky Finger 4m
- Fixing the Weighting of the Thumb 4m
- Finishing the Deformations of the Index Finger 4m
- Wrapping up the Weights of the Pinky Finger 10m
- Completing the Thumb's Weights 7m
- Finalizing the Weights of the Left Hand 4m
- Working on the Forearm's Weights 3m
- Refining the Weights of the Elbow and Upper Arm 5m
- Finishing up the Left Arm's Deformations 11m
- Concluding the Deformations of the Left Leg 8m
- Finishing the Deformations of the Upper Body 12m
- Finalizing the Deformations of the Head and Neck and Mirroring Weights 10m
- Solidifying the Neck Twist 4m
About the author
Delano works avidly as an animation author at Pluralsight. Starting his career at animation studios like Shilo, Delano has developed a strong passion for his talents. His animation and rigging background help him teach and create some of the most-watched training on Pluralsight. A few of his favorite projects that he has contributed to include: Character Interaction in Maya and in Softimage, Rigging the Human Face in Maya, Rigging Sea Creatures in Maya, and Rigging and Animating Transforming... more