Rigging and Posing

MAYA Rigging and Posing

Introduction 

This project is to rig a character which is a massive importance in the games industry as it is the step taken before it needs to be animated. What I will be doing in this project is to rig a character (giving them a skeleton) which will give it pivot points where the joints are and rigid points where the bones will be. This will then enable the character to be placed in different poses and in essence bringing it to life.

5 December 2017

What is rigging?

Rigging is a digital skeleton that makes up joints and bones on a 3D mesh of a character or objects placing pivot points on parts of the model that can move. With characters this allows the riggers to bend a character into different poses and allows it to move when animated, the same would imply on objects like a clock, treasure chest or anything that may have points that move. A simple rig can take a couple of hours, whereas a complex rig for a film for example can take up to a few days.

What is dogging?

DG consists of slinging techniques to move a load by directing for example a crane or other types of operator.

Examples below:

Placing the skeleton 

In Joint Hierarchy the joints and bones needs to follow a logical Hierarchy. The first joint that is placed is called a root joint, with every joint either connected to the root or through another joint from the root. 

In Forward Kinematics (FK) is one of two ways to calculate joint movement in a rigged character. The joint will only affect the part of a skeleton that are below it.

An example would be if the hip joint is rotated round the angle of the joint below it, the knee and ankle will change

In Inverse kinematics (IK) the rigging is a reverse process opposed to forward kinematics. It can be found as an efficient way to rigging either the legs or arms on a character. The terminating joint will be placed by the animator while the other joints will be automatically placed by the software.

Degrees of freedom and constraints.

When rigging the joints a limited to a certain degree of freedom in reality, which means they are unable to bend past a certain point.

To prevent unrealistic movements in animation  there are joint constraints that can be set upwhen building a character rig.

Squash and Stretch

A decision then has to be made as to whether the character rig will support squash or stretch and if the character will remain a realistic motion.

It is important to look at it in exaggerated cartoon motion. In reality it wouldn't look right in realistic film.

To retain a realistic motion is to make sure a set of constraints is used to help lock the position of each joint within the rig.

Facial Rig

A facial rig is separate from the main motion controls of the characters body. It is difficult to create a facial rig with bone and joint structure. As a solution morph targets, also known as blend shapes are used as it is seen as more effective.

Information source (images sourced separate)

https://www.lifewire.com/what-is-rigging-2095

Picture Examples of various things that can be Rigged

18 December 2017

Silhouettes research

Silhouettes 

The purpose of the silhouettes is to thing of poses I would like to take inspiration for my Photoshop painting

19 December 2017

MAYA Practice Rigging

Telescope

Applying joints and creating a null1 with a child nurb and replicating that along each part that is going to move.

Visible telescope with the above applied.

Photoshop Painting

Character painting. Added shading to face, skin and added detail such as eyes and more definition in the lips.

Rigging

Renaming the polygons in my hierachy hypergraph to make it easier to set up the rig for each limb.

 To start rigging I need to adjust the pivot point on the limbs that I want to move. To do this, I need to select the part I am setting up the rig on by pressing Cntl and D to move the pivot point to the end of the arm by the should (upper arm). Once I have adjusted the pivot points on all areas I want that moves, I will go of object mode and click Cntl and G to create a Null1 which I will rename Nuetral_".....".

I then position it on the joint and duplicate the null for each joint and rename them Nuetral_".....". Once done I then create a Nurb circle, to scale the nurb circle I would have to select vertices to scale it to fit just a little larger than the basic human shape. This is what is going to be my Global control. 

I create a new nurb circle and allign it where the Nuetral_"......" is and duplicate this for each and rename it Cntl_"limb it is" and make it a child of the Nuetral_"......." and make these a child of Global control and add any additional parts, this means that when they are all grouped they can then be moved together.

Rigging
Rendered

Maya 

Modelling

Modelling a more realistic character body shape starting of with a polygon cylinder, then extruding and scaling in accordance to the different areas of the body.

Research 

Vitruvian Man, the reason for referring to this in to get the body length and proportions as accurate as possible. Created by Leanardo Di Vinci.

Modelling

Adding a nurb circle around the model to then extrude some faces to start creating the limbs, the purpose of the circle is to make sure the arms and the legs are of roughly equal length so the human figure isn't dis-proportioned. 

Research

This image of a skul was sourced to use as a reference to modelling a close to accurate head shape to make the overall model look more organic.

Modelling

Rigging

I discovered due to the lack of poly surfaces around the shoulders, the arms and shoulder region became deformed as there was a low poly count around that area which meant there wasn't enough surfaces to allow a smooth bend. Next time I intend to do this I will ensure there is enough polygons to allow no deformities when any of the limbs move.

Rendered Images

Front view of a T pose

Angular view of T pose

Side View of T pose

Front view arms straight down

Side view arms straight down

Front view star shape

Photoshop character painting

Research

Weights in MAYA

Weights in rigging are to make sure the mesh can stretch accordingly when the model is rigged and going to be animated so that it prevents the model/mesh from being distorted when different limbs are moving. 

Average Weights

This goes through a selection of verts and will work out the average weight for the influences, it will go through this selection process once more to then apply the "average weight". This will result in changing the verts which should make sure the kinetic areas do not deform.

Tips with painting skin weights

Simplifying with thickness and copying weights

To make a copy of the model and to then remove the thickness. paint on weights to model and then copy it to the original.

Handing Hotkeys

• CTRL + ALT + C = Copy vertex weights
• CTRL + ALT + V = Paste vertex weights
• N + LMB (drag) + Adjust the value painting with
• U + LMB = Marking menu to change  the paint operation
• ALT + F Flood surfaces with current values

Basic Character Rig Video

Video of basic model to practice rigging with using the rigging menu to pair children to parents (different areas of the model) in order so if the upper arm moves, the lower arm follows.

Character Concept Art Video

Footage of the concept art being created.

Organic Character Model Rig with Skeleton

Video showing the workflow of creating a more organic human figure and placing a skeleton within it.

Evaluation

This project was very challenging. Early on I was experiencing technical difficulties with my audio loop system which is like earphones but for my hearing aid, a connection went inside it so I was not receiving any audio information which disabled me from researching how I could or would rig my model. The second issue was being without a 3D tutor to help teach and guide through the rigging of a model which caused even more of a setback during this project.

With all the challenges that arised I managed to get my audio loop fixed and work through tutorials to practise some simple rigging by adding controls and parenting a child to different limbs to create a simple rig onto a simple basic model in which was only to practice on. Once done and notes had been taken a new model was created with a more realistic silhouette which I then put a skeleton inside it to replicate the joints and bones in a body that enabled the different limbs to move and rotate.

Overall, despite the challenges I faced I am happy with the outcome and feel a sense of achievement by accomplishing something that felt impossible with time, patience, determination and support from my fellow workers. Some teamwork helped this project achieve the deadline. I managed to accomplish what might not be the most visibly aesthetic model or skeletal rig, but it was achieved and that is the reason I feel happy and accomplished.

What I have learned from this?

I have managed to learn how to do a simple rig with creating a parent and giving it a child. I have managed to learn how to put a skeleton into a model of a human. I have learnt how to create a semi realistic human form in MAYA despite having difficulties with organic materials. I have also learnt for future to have more poly mesh around the areas of the joints to allow more space for the mesh to stretch and prevent any deformities when changing the poses in the model and when it comes to animating. Most importantly I learned that with patience and determination I can achieve as long as I remain persistent, I personally feel that is the most important lesson.