Enhanced IK Animal Rigging in Maya
This Maya tutorial will teach the viewer how to rig a mountain lion harnessing the power of Enhanced IK in Maya. Software required: Maya 2012.
What you'll learn
This Maya tutorial will teach the viewer how to rig a mountain lion harnessing the power of Enhanced IK in Maya. In this tutorial, Farley Chery will lead the viewer through the rigors of creating a control rig for one of the great cats using Enhanced IK in Maya 2012. While the tutorial centers on a puma/panther these techniques work on all the great cats and any quadruped with similar anatomy. New ideas on internal automation principles will be explored and old ones expanded on. The artist will create a robust rig with a more straight forward workflow then the previous course, while still providing examples of problem solving techniques that arise when creating a complex rig. The tutorial focuses on presenting new or different techniques wherever possible for comparison with more established systems. Rigging one of the great cats with enhanced IK makes for a very flexible control rig. The base system of Enhanced IK though is versatile enough to use with many other methodologies in Maya. Enhanced IK greatly improves the functionality of Inverse Kinematics in Maya. By the end of this Maya tutorial you will be armed with techniques to make efficient and robust rigs for feline and canine quadrupeds, utilizing an enhanced control rig that is ready to be modified and finalized with your preferred hierarchies and dynamic parenting setups. Software required: Maya 2012.
Table of contents
- Taking a Look at Our Enhanced IK Setup in the Hind Legs 7m
- Comparing FK Systems 10m
- Beginning the No Flip Knee 19m
- Creating Our Measure Tool 10m
- No Flip Knee Hierarchy for Auto Swivel Hips 12m
- Finishing the Knee and Pole Vector Hiearchies 17m
- Finishing the No Flip Knee and Understanding the Pv Buffer 7m
- Exporting Out Our Mechanism 10m
- Theory Adding FK Controls 10m
- Creating and Export the Right Pole Vector 7m
- Creating a Squash and Stretch Spine 10m
- The Nspine 7m
- Troubleshooting and Looking at Other Options for Spinal Controls 15m
- Troubleshooting and Looking at Other Options for Spinal Controls (Part 2) 10m
- Spine Revision Using Components Instead of Cluster for Control 13m
- Adding in Spinal Rotations 13m
- Finishing the Rotation Controls and Adding a Kill Switch 14m
- Completing the Spine Tool and Prepping for the Tail 12m
- Completing the Tail Setup 13m
- We Begin Our Automatic Hip Orientation Rig 14m
- Finishing up the Automatic Hip Setup 20m
- Introduction to Our Model 6m
- Inserting the Spine and Tail 10m
- Editing the Inserted Setups 5m
- Anatomy of a Cat and Joint Placement 15m
- Completing Joint Placement 13m
- Inserting Our No Flip Knees and Automatic Hip Tools 6m
- Adding Rear IK Handles and Controlling Stretch 10m
- Cleaning up the Tail and Prepping for the Creation of the Neck 13m
- Review of the Neck and Creation Controls 10m
- Review of the Skinned Model 8m
- Enhancing the Useful Output from Our IK Handles 20m
- Adding Toe Movements and Troubleshooting 10m
- Adding in Knee Compensation for Foot Swivel 9m
- Wrapping up the Hind Paw 15m
- Beginning the Foreleg Controls 9m
- Building a Pose Space Tool to Automate the Scapula 14m
- Finishing the Automatic Scapula and Adding Our Controller 12m
- Adding Rotational Elements to Our Controller 10m
- Adding Enhanced IK Controls for the Foreleg 16m
- Looking at the Buffer Group and Discussing Other Rigging Options 11m
- Wrapping up the Neck Controls 14m
- Implementing Our Motion Flow Hips 23m
- Setting up the Chest Controls 6m
- Setting up the COM and Cog 11m
- Implementing the No Flip Pole Vector into Our Foreleg 7m
- Parenting the Head 7m
- Quick Cleanup of the Rig 6m
- Finishing up the Tail 15m
- Tips to Improve the Rig 8m
- Final Rig Tests 13m
About the author
Farley Chery has been working or teaching in 3D for 5 years. His skills were developed by Patricia Beckmann-Welles and Digital Tutors at the start. He has spent the last four years freelancing and creating new techniques and theories to help his students through 3D’s steep learning curve. He first showcased Enhanced IK with Digital Tutors and will be describing his modeling and topological processes in the upcoming book “The Modeler’s Book of Shadows.” He is currently freelancing and writing cur... more