Next Gen 29/04/16 Maya Rigging

This week, we took our first try at creating a motion rig in Maya.  While the proportions were off on the final rig, the result is what I could have hoped it would be; fully functional on all joints. The main thing I could improve on the rig is to proportion the rig better.

The way that this rig works is through five separate sections, each with its own start joint, from importance in the hierarchy. The first section was from the hip, to the knee, then to the ankle and final the toes. The next section was the lower spine, then the middle spine, next was the upper spine, then came the neck, then head and finally the nose (for some odd reason). The third section was the clavide, next was the shoulder, then came the elbow, the final joint was the wrist. The last section was all of the fingers, each finger had 4 joints (3 with one at the end of the finger), aside from the thumb which as 3 joints.

The process was to make either the right or left side of the rig and then mirror the rig vertically. After all sections are mirrored they are then connected into one hierarchy.

You may notice that the joints are bent/not straight. The reason for this is that if the joint is straight it might go in the wrong direction or it might not move at all. Another point is that the rig arms and fingers are spread out, the reason for this is that when you merge a model with a rig, it sometimes connects certain parts of rig with the model that is not wanted; such as a leg with a arm.