Animation noobie - Maya IK Spline rigging problem

emmix

Hi. I'm trying to mod an old video game by adding some new animations to the main character. The original model files are long gone, but I've been able to extract the mesh and skeleton data, along with all existing animations from the game files. I'm trying to set up a rig in Maya so that I can start adding some new animations in game.

It's my first attempt at rigging, so I'm learning a lot as I go, but I'm completely baffled about what's going on with spline IK when I try to apply it and I'm not even sure what question I'm supposed to be asking.

I'm trying to apply the spline to the character's spine joints with a manual curve

When I do create the spline, the model becomes a mess

When I try to use auto create curve, Maya crashes, so maybe there's something wrong with the joint hierarchy? They have some joints in the spine chain that are sitting directly on top of each other, (pelvis, base_torso, and torso all have the exact same position), and I think they used this for something in the game code originally. Does anyone have any idea what's going on here?

Apologies if my images aren't helpful

monster

Check if someone already made a rig for that game. 

If not, make a fresh skeleton on top of that one and rig your skeleton. Then constrain the game’s skeleton to your rig. Best way to avoid problems. 

Torso and pelvis share a location probably to help with split upper and lower body animations. I’m guessing torso follows pelvis, but doesn’t rotate with it. Inspect the animations you extracted to verify.

emmix

monster said:

If not, make a fresh skeleton on top of that one and rig your skeleton. Then constrain the game’s skeleton to your rig. Best way to avoid problems.

Ah that's a really great idea, didn't consider that. Thank you!