2015
cmiVFX
Simon Payne
3:00
English
Welcome back to the holy grail of rigging and animation! cmiVFX has just released volume 2 part C of an outstanding Creature Rigging and Animation Masterclass featuring a true VFX legend: the one-and-only Simon Payne. Volume 2 part C of this course provides you with a vast amount of in-depth knowledge and expertise on rigging. We'll learn how to make telescopic joints that are 100% reliable and will never flip. We'll also learn about IK arms, IK hand space options, IK/FK spines, IK/FK legs, auto clavicles, IK/FK ArmSwitch, and FK heads, jaws, and eyes. This is top-notch instruction that simply can't be found anywhere else, and Simon Payne's teaching methods are absolutely fantastic. This is rigging and animation at its finest. NOTE: If you're new to this course, you'll need to watch volume 1, as well as volume 2 part A and part B, before beginning volume 2 part C. Due to the large amount of information covered in volume 2 of this course, it has been split into five parts labeled A, B, C, D and E. You'll need to watch the entire course to fully understand this material. So, if you're all caught up on the previous material, enjoy Creature Creator's Handbook Volume 2 Part C.
Telescopic joints
Inverted telescopic joint setups (pistons) can be tricky and prone to flipping. Here you’ll learn how to build them in a reliable and controllable way. We'll use a triple joint hierarchy and Inverse Kinematics to ensure that we can animate either end of the inverted-telescoping system while maintaining full control of the joint’s orientation.
IK / FK switching
Modularization
Setting up effective IK and effective FK to be as functional and intuitive to animate as possible is not especially easy to do simultaneously, and it's difficult to make it switchable without glitches. Here we learn how to do it correctly, while going several steps further by allowing our IK/FK switching to be modular. We make sure that any limb can be switched between IK and FK without loosing its parental control level. For example, the left leg may be switched to FK, while the right leg is switched to IK, but the spine may be switched between either mode, and yet both legs still function and remain attached to the spine regardless of the spine’s FK/IK mode switch.
Quick control constraint menu
In addition to the cmi Rigging Menu, having already introduced "spSimpleControls" control building utility, and "spQuickJointOrient," we add the menu items that allow us to easily constrain selected objects to a selected control’s constraint node. All of these utilities are designed for the purpose of hugely speeding up the rigging process. We’ll be taking more of our processes into scripted forms in volume 3.
Planar skeleton layouts, modeling adjustments, and seamless switching between IK/FK
We also learn about planar skeleton layouts and why it is important to bare this in mind during the modeling process. Sometimes, it may be necessary to slightly adjust the model to allow for a more reliable IK setup. The two main issues when setting up IK joints are:
World and orient space switching
We also learn about switching between “worldSpace†movement modes for each limb, and between different “orientSpace†modes (movement control) for related pole vector controls. Sometimes, for example, you may want feet to be controlled in world space, and stick to the floor during walking. Other times, you may want the IK foot to move with the spine for flying or dangling. Likewise, during the motion of kicking, you may want the foot control to drive the pole vector control. Most of the time, you may want the knee’s pole vector to move with the hip or spine. Other times, you may prefer for it to be free in world space. Likewise for elbows.
Joining finger controls to the arm, and obeying IK/FK switching
We have already learned earlier in this volume about setting up IK fingers. Here we learn how to join our finger IK to the rest of the arm, and obey switching rules to manipulate in FK mode.
Automatic clavicles
Clavicle animation is something often ignored by animators who just assume that the rig is not performing the way they expect it to, and complain to the rigger that their animation is limited as a result. Just because you provide a clavicle animation control, doesn’t mean animators will actually use it. So we are going to setup an automatic drive for our clavicle controls using a ghost set of arm joints and an IK aim joint. We use a weighted constraint to drive the automatic movement of our clavicle with the freedom to stiffen it up or effectively switch it off.
Head, Eyes and Jaw
This section covers the simple addition of the head controls along with a set of eye controls with offsets and aim. Characters do not always require the head to have an IK option. Our ogre is an example of a character that raises this question due to its design. The jaw control is also one that we must consider in terms of its freedom. It is obvious to most that a jaw only rotates on one axis, however, in CG, we often have to bend the rules a bit to achieve the poses and animations requested, so we allow full movement in translate and rotate. We won’t worry about the bearded (fleshy rather than hairy) section of our Ogre in the puppet rig for now, because we’ll be revisiting this and all other high-level deformation issues in volume 3. Nonetheless, due to the demonstration here of planar joints and mapping the pole vector control position, we introduce a new batch/individual skin-saver/loader utility that I have provided with this volume in the cmi Rigging Menu. We’ll look at this in greater detail in Part D of this volume. We'll also tidy up our rig and prepare it for connection to the deformation rig for saving and loading animation, which will all be covered in full in volume 3.
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