T0725 - Digital Tutors - Creature Rigging in Maya Insects

Learn an artist-friendly workflow to creature rigging and a solution-based approach to building controls for faster animation in Maya. Contains over 6 hours of project-based training for setup artists learning new methods of rigging multi-limbed creatures.

Popular highlights include:

• Building Skeletons from Anatomy


• Painting Weights for Rigid Deformations


• Spring IK Solver


• No-Flip IK


• Innovative Broken Hierarchies


• MEL Scripting for Rigging and Animation


• Visual Limiter Controls


• Sculpt Deformer


• Blend Shapes


• Character Sets


• Smooth Binding

Lesson Outline:

1.	Creating a MEL script to align objects to bones	9:52
2.	Using MEL to snap objects	13:41
3.	Preparing the scene for rigging	7:52
4.	Beginning the skeleton based on insect anatomy	7:09
5.	Creating joints for the insect's head	7:04
6.	Adding joints to the insect's back legs	9:33
7.	Finishing the chains for the insect's legs	5:23
8.	Creating an intuitive broken hierarchy set up	4:37
9.	Adding broken hierarchy control to our rig	5:12
10.	Applying Spring IK handles to the legs	7:37
11.	Building a control object reservoir	11:33
12.	Adding a control to the front left leg	9:16
13.	Finishing the set up of the front left leg	10:39
14.	Completing the back left leg and the right front leg	8:53
15.	Wrapping up the insect's limbs	7:45
16.	Setting up the head control	9:23
17.	Rigging the mandibles and antennas	11:35
18.	Creating the gaster's control	7:40
19.	Avoiding flipping in IK chains	5:08
20.	Adding a control for the petiole	2:51
21.	Controlling the thorax	9:43
22.	Setting up warning controls	9:35
23.	Adding broken hierarchy control to the thorax and sting	6:31
24.	Finishing the control rig	7:15
25.	Working with Character sets	10:38
26.	Binding the insect	11:54
27.	Painting weights - Completing the gaster	6:54
28.	Painting weights - Finishing the head	8:46
29.	Painting weights - Working on the petiole	11:14
30.	Painting weights - Starting the thorax	9:03
31.	Painting weights - Finishing the thorax and the left front leg	7:57
32.	Mirroring wieghts - Left legs to the right legs	3:17
33.	Smoothing the weights of the sting and end of the gaster	9:03
34.	Finishing the gaster	9:10
35.	Completing the weights of the back left leg	11:15
36.	Finishing the left middle legs weights	9:56
37.	Correcting the weights of the front and mid throax	13:56
38.	Smoothing the head and antenna deformations	9:51
39.	Mirroring wieghts - Checking deformations	10:37
40.	Controlling the insect's smooth division level	4:36
41.	Rigging the sting and gaster using deformers	12:32
42.	Preparing the scene for animation	10:27