T0375 - Rigging Next-Gen Characters in XSI

Learn a production workflow to rigging and enveloping, create custom tools, and time-saving methods for creating game-ready characters rigs. Contains over 6 hours of project-based training for artists learning character rigging for next-generation games.Popular highlights include:

• Rigging Techniques for Games


• Scripting Custom Tools


• Groups and Transform Groups


• Mirroring Rigs


• Mirroring Weights


• Models


• Exporting Weights


• Automating Follow-through


• Creating Custom Spine Rigs


• Character Key Sets


• Intuitive Forearm Rigs


• Custom Toolbars


• Building Animator-friendly Controls


• Animating Pivots


• Enveloping Techniques


• Polygon Cluster Visibility


• Scene Organization


• Working Creatively with Expressions

Lesson Outline:

1.	Preparing the scene for rigging	11:23
2.	Rigging the staff	12:34
3.	Adding a pivot control to the staff	7:46
4.	Creating a button that keys the staff's pivot	5:53
5.	Building the character's left leg bones	7:13
6.	Setting up secondary foot controls	5:14
7.	Adding primary controls for the leg	7:15
8.	Establishing a custom parameter to control the ball roll	3:37
9.	Choosing a good rotation order	3:19
10.	Creating a knee control	4:46
11.	Enhancing the knee control to be animator-friendly	8:40
12.	Adding an envelope deformer to preserve the volume of the buttocks	5:33
13.	Averaging the movement of the buttock deformer	9:28
14.	Mirroring the knee control and the leg and foot chains	10:20
15.	Mirroring the leg and foot controls and reapplying expressions	7:34
16.	Building a custom spine	8:50
17.	Setting up controls for the spine	9:43
18.	Building the back and center of gravity controls	9:26
19.	Creating objects to control the twisting of the spine	5:37
20.	Using expressions to create twist distribution in the spine	9:06
21.	Rigging the neck and head	8:29
22.	Rigging the hair	9:13
23.	Looking at an automated follow-through solution for the hair	7:07
24.	Building the shoulder and arm chains	6:30
25.	Creating a shoulder control	5:43
26.	Constructing the fingers and constraining the left hand	12:05
27.	Setting up the arm control	4:31
28.	Using custom parameters to drive the fingers	6:43
29.	Working on the elbow control	5:47
30.	Finishing the elbow control	2:46
31.	Discussing various ways to rig the forearm twist	10:08
32.	Parent-switching the arm	10:05
33.	Mirroring the hand and elbow controls	7:00
34.	Mirroring the shoulder controls	9:23
35.	Retargeting the right hand's fingers to be driven by the correct parameter	7:26
36.	Creating a Global Control and double-checking the control rig	9:34
37.	Utilizing Character Key Sets	8:06
38.	Writing a script to connect nulls on all bones	9:21
39.	Organizing the Envelope Nulls and enveloping the character	8:26
40.	Blocking the weights on the left leg and hip	7:43
41.	Adding influence to the left buttocks and blocking in the upper body	4:02
42.	Blocking in the chest's weight and using Polygon Cluster Visibility	8:37
43.	Blocking in the neck and head weights	3:26
44.	Blocking in the hair's weight	3:54
45.	Fixing the deformations of the left shoulder and arm	5:25
46.	Wrapping up the blocking pass	6:41
47.	Mirroring the blocked weights	10:58
48.	Smoothing the deformations of the left leg	9:53
49.	Fine-tuning the abdomen deformations	6:48
50.	Fine-tuning the chest deformations	4:18
51.	Tweaking the neck and head deformations	4:50
52.	Smoothing the hair's weights	2:45
53.	Fixing the left shoulder and arm deformations	8:25
54.	Tweaking the left elbow, forearm and wrist	4:59
55.	Double-checking the character deformations	7:19
56.	Mirroring smoothed weights	5:29
	Total Run Time:	6:47:37