3DSMAX - Cat Rig - Where is the heel peel/lift, toe tap/twist/lift, knee and elbow swivel dials?

sr3d

I''m using Cat Rig in 3d Studio Max 2014.  I'm looking for the cat rigs ability to control the following:

- Knee and elbow swivel
- Heel peel/lift
- Toe tap/twist/lift

I'm also looking for a way to:

- enable IK on the head
- get a HIP IK gizmo (rotates everything above the hip) and a HIP FK gizmo (rotates hip only)

Also, how do I enable realistic human joint limits? For example the hand can only bend back so far, currently the cat rig allows you to bend all the way back which is not realistic.  I'm using the Base Human preset.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

musashidan

-When creating the base rig, in the modify panel select an arm/leg bone and enable 'use up node' This will
create point helper vectors at the elbow/knee
-There are no spinners/sliders to control foot roll. You would have to rig this yourself with custom attributes.
-You can add a single digit in setup mode and use the digit manager attributes to control this.

-Head IK: again, CR is a hybrid system(FK-Driven-IK) just select the head bone and move or rotate it.
-To rotate everything above the hip just select the ribcage bone.
-To rotate the pelvis bone only:Hierarchy tab>hub hierarchy>pin bone.

To limit a bone's transformation::Hierarchy tab>joint limits. Also, to disable 'stretchy bones': :Hierarchy tab>bone hierarchy>uncheck
manipulation causes stretching.

Unless using procedural-driven CatMotion I would hightly recommend rigging the CR with your own controllers/custom attributes,
as the default CR is not great for any serious manual animation.

sr3d

musashidan said:

-When creating the base rig, in the modify panel select an arm/leg bone and enable 'use up node' This will
create point helper vectors at the elbow/knee

Do I just rotate these point helpers at the "view" level to make it work like a swivel?  Does this have anything to do with knee look at?

-There are no spinners/sliders to control foot roll. You would have to rig this yourself with custom attributes.
-You can add a single digit in setup mode and use the digit manager attributes to control this.

I think I found a tutorial that allows one to set these two up:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gm_g8do32k&list=PLsnJUqqju-W0U9yMIOjlOFJ6cuENEarFt&index=1

-Head IK: again, CR is a hybrid system(FK-Driven-IK) just select the head bone and move or rotate it.

I see.

-To rotate everything above the hip just select the ribcage bone.
-To rotate the pelvis bone only:Hierarchy tab>hub hierarchy>pin bone.

To limit a bone's transformation::Hierarchy tab>joint limits. Also, to disable 'stretchy bones': :Hierarchy tab>bone hierarchy>uncheck
manipulation causes stretching.

Thank you.

Unless using procedural-driven CatMotion I would hightly recommend rigging the CR with your own controllers/custom attributes,
as the default CR is not great for any serious manual animation.

You wouldn't happen to have a list of these controllers/custom attributes that I need to add to the cat rig?  What would a professional animator expect a rig to have?

Thanks again for your help.

musashidan

The look-at point helpers(pole vectors) are moved rather than rotated

I think these days animators expect a rig to have many controls to give them as much flexibility as possible. It depends on the character/scene been animated: realistic/cartoony/dialogue/action-driven/quality(how many seconds expected delievered in X amount of time/etc. All these factors play a role.

Most rigs will be IK/FK so you would have 2 sets of controls to reflect this. The controls would usually be spline objects(circles/squares/etc)to make it easy to select them when animating - some of which will have custom attributes in the modify tab. That way an animator can hide the rig and just work with the controls(or filter shapes selection)
A quick way to add these control objects is to right-click a CAT bone and select 'create gizmo' These will automatically be aligned/linked to the bone.

It really is a quite in-depth subject and will certainly frustrate you no end if you've never rigged before and don't know much about it. For instance: to set up a foot for full control you would need a reverse foot setup with spinner/sliders wired to custom attributes through the parameter editor. This would give full control over step cycle/heel toe lift/pivot/roll/etc. I would highly recommend some basic tuts on rigging/animation controllers/parameter wiring/etc.

It's worth checking out this rig: Brad Noble skeleton Rig hands down the best available rig I've ever used in Max. Unfortunately it is no longer being actively deved/updated, but is well worth a look if you want to get an idea of a rig with full control.

Also, have a look here: Pen Productions Paul Neale is one of the top Max rigging gurus

rexenor

Hello Musashidan, 

I am interested in the links you shared back then Brad Noble skeleton Rig  and Pen Productions , Their no longer active. 

Any idea where I can find that content? 
Thankss!