Looking For Rigging and Skinning help for a Beginner (please you're my only hope)
null
Hello,
I have been searching high and low for any information on how to do this but to no avail so now I am asking for help. I am sorry if this is already a topic on here somewhere. I am new to the rigging world, my job requires it of me so I learned as I could. I am now at a point where I can't raise any characters hands over their head for example if they were to hang from a ledge, do jumping jacks, or just reach for the sky. The mesh crinkles and no amount of skinning can fix it and I don't know how to properly implement a blend shape that won't mess up if I rotate the arm just slightly out of the pose the blendshape was made in.
I have opened free rigs to see if I can understand what is going on, and I can't, and some I can't even unearth the skeleton to see if I am missing something.
I am working in Maya, and like I said I have little experience beyond just making a skeleton and putting it into motionbuilder to build a control rig. So even if you can point me to tutorials that I have missed I would greatly appreciate it as I am blocked from furthering my skills and experience without this knowledge. Thank you!!!!!
I have been searching high and low for any information on how to do this but to no avail so now I am asking for help. I am sorry if this is already a topic on here somewhere. I am new to the rigging world, my job requires it of me so I learned as I could. I am now at a point where I can't raise any characters hands over their head for example if they were to hang from a ledge, do jumping jacks, or just reach for the sky. The mesh crinkles and no amount of skinning can fix it and I don't know how to properly implement a blend shape that won't mess up if I rotate the arm just slightly out of the pose the blendshape was made in.
I have opened free rigs to see if I can understand what is going on, and I can't, and some I can't even unearth the skeleton to see if I am missing something.
I am working in Maya, and like I said I have little experience beyond just making a skeleton and putting it into motionbuilder to build a control rig. So even if you can point me to tutorials that I have missed I would greatly appreciate it as I am blocked from furthering my skills and experience without this knowledge. Thank you!!!!!
Replies
http://wiki.polycount.com/wiki/Rigging
I would suggest checking out Brian Tindall's site, and digging around in there.
Without seeing the rig or the problems, here are some general tips to help you get the most out of the least rigging possible.
Rig in a T-Pose, so your arms are easy to work on, if you are comfortable rigging in an A-Pose, great for a few big ticket items a T-Pose works best. But that doesn't mean you have to model and skin with the T-Pose.
Model and Skin in an A-Pose, so the shoulders are half way between the extremes of deformation. That way they aren't starting at one extreme and having to blend all the way to the other extreme. They start in the middle and deform half way to meet both extremes.
I hear you're using blendshapes to correct form? Stop. There is a TON of things you can do with just skinning and proper joint placement. For 95% of most rigs that's all you need. For the other 5%, it only is necessary after you've nailed joint placement and skinning.
Clavicles, are, SUPER IMPORTANT. Usually if someone is having trouble with the shoulder area they are neglecting the importance of the clavicles. When it comes to raising the arms above the head you need the clavicles. They are what pulls the shoulder up next to the ear when the arms are above the head. They also roll forward and back and convey a mother fuck-ton of emotion. Usually
Hippydrome is a good source of reference for topology, joint placement, range of motion and general deformation.
Notice where the angle pivots from, that is where you typically want your clavicles to start. This joint will control the mass between the neck and bicep.
Next you want to make sure the shoulder joint is in the right spot. Hippydrome will help with that also. Too close to the body and the arms will clip into the rib cage. Too far out and you get train tunnels where your arm pits should be. Too close to the top of the shoulder and the armpit deforms poorly. Too close to the armpit and the shoulder turns to mush.
It really depends on how much rigging you really want to get into? That rabbit hole goes really deep, really fast and if you aren't that interested in learning rigging, you might want to check out some fairly flexible autorigging scripts that really streamline the process.
I've personally used and fully support Advance Skeleton 5. It's great for biped and quadruped creatures. It supports a lot of custom rigging and really gives you a good workflow to do a lot of rigging without knowing much about rigging. Even if you know rigging, it's great to have an automated solution that cranks out some really complex systems with just a few simple clicks. it can also be adapted to work with game engines fairly easily. The example rigs are great to play around with, plus the download is freely available so you can test it out fully before committing to it. It is one of the more expensive options but it's worth it.
Rapid Rig Modular is really good too, especially for its price point.
I also like The Setup Machine. Their newest set of tools is great, but not quite as flexible and is a bit of a black box. You get what it spits out and you better be happy with it. It might get you up and running in most cases but you'll quickly find there are some things it just isn't going to do or be as flexible as other solutions.
BUT all of those require you to understand the importance of joint placement and the power of skinning the joints properly. So they aren't going to magically fix that issue.
Hopefully that gets you moving in the right direction. It would really help me, help you if there where some images or even an example scene file that I could poke around in.
Good luck!