General Tips

Wednesday, 19 February 2025 8:19 am

Win+Shift+S - snip

Win+L/R - send to other

screen

Labs Page 1
Maya rigging
Wednesday, 5 March 2025 2:08 pm
Notes:
Creating a new project: can create new folder - renderScenes for finished scenes to be rendered with
new project = project window -> new button -> name project (camelCase_and_underscores) naming convention -> maxAnim_s01_sh02 (max animation, scene 1, shot 2)
(If importing premade model): reference editor -> diamond with plus -> select model
Save -> maya ascii, named appropriately for scene, in proper scene folder (scenes, renderScenes) shot = 1 single continuous piece of footage, cuts change between shots
scene = group of shots in similar setting one after the other

Keyframing: Controllers are objects tied to parts of the model -> moving controllers change values (eg translateX) that deforms the
Hit S to create a keyframe mesh in a non-permanent way
Rclick on property (eeg translateX) and hit key selected to key just one property
-> click break connections to delete all keyframes for selected

Graph editor -> lets you edit keyframes/keyframe blend timings, uses same shortcuts as when manipulating models (w
to translate, e to rotate, r to scale)

Animating with rig:

Switch between FK/IK with controls on root -> eg. Leg Left IKFK (1=IK, 0=FK, why reversed??)
Can switch between FK/IK depending on what is more convenient for motion
Able to blend to make transition between fk/ik seamless

Reset maya preferences and stuff:

Go to documents/maya and rename version folder to have _old at the end, maya will generate
A fresh version on next opening

Maya scripts:
In prefs folder, scripts, icons etc

Labs Page 2
Rigging hierarchy
Wednesday, 12 March 2025 2:25 pm

New project - project name from asmgt brief

Paste character into assets folder of project
Paste textures into sourceimages folder of project
Import character into new file (file ->import)
Save character as ao2_characterrig.001.ma -> scenes folder
Saving -> increment and save

Optimize scene important with models you get from some outside untrusted source - (file->optimize scene size->turn
everything on and apply)
Camel case
Rename mesh root with format grp_geo_characterRigModel
Rename all mesh parts with format: geo_partOfBody (eg geo_teethTop)

Rename layer on display as lyr_geo for geometry layer

Make a custom shelf that you can add stuff you use all the time to !!!!!
Make sure centred & transforms are zeroed out, scale to 1 This changes the shelves. Rigging is better for..rigging

Move tool settings -> symmetry settings -> world x (mirror stuff across x, good for working with symmetrical characters)
Tolerance->minimum
Seam tolerance->minimum
Add tool settings window, dock it on the right
Save as a02_characterRig.incrementnum(005etc)_geoClean.ma (milestone save)

Then save as a02_characterRig.006.ma (next increment num)

Rigging -> change menu from modeling to rigging

NEVER scale joints - it makes things really weird. Keep the scale at 1 always
Skeleton-> create joint (add to shelf)
Center joint in channel box, radius makes the handle bigger

the view cube is evil. being able to rotate on orthographic views is evil.
joint naming convention - jnt_root, jnt_base etc
ctrl+g group joint - group is the skeleton that holds all joints. grp_rigSkeleton or whatever I want to name it that makes
sense

xray rendering makes everything transparent

xray active rendering makes selected object visible through things
xray joint rendering makes joints visible through things

isolate selected (to the left of xrays) shows only selected

COG center of gravity joint is base of all movement

joints should be in a line ->pelvis, cog, spine1
pelvis/spine should be then rehierarchied to be both children of cog

^ needs to be split into 3 for hierarchy reasons but should all be in essentially the same place
shift+p unparent
go up spine, following curve of the body with joint tool. make as many joints as make snse. 5ish in spine 3 in neck? select child->parent and hit p to parent
head rotates at base of neck arrows of joints show parentage, ball is the actual joint
make 1 head joint - end is just for ease
jnt_head and nbj_head for the end joint - non binding joint doesn't move. maya skeletons are ~inspired~ by human skeletons but rotation points and etc is more
important than mimicking real anatomy

hold down D while joint is selected to just move the point rather than the entire joint and
eyes - they shouldnt both pivot at the same place. put joints in them all children
make sure the joints are in the center of the eye mesh -> modeling toolset -> mesh menu separate (make each eye a
different mesh in their own group.
select them and delete history Theres a way to rename all selected objects at the same time with incremented names
the eye pivots are crazy. we need to center it on the eyeballs. but they arent perfect spheres or hemispheres which is but I missed how
annoying cos the mesh center isnt the eyeball center
center the pivot, then snap to vertex from ortho side view to make it snap to that place but only on the one axis. so it’s
the center
hold D when moving a mesh -> move pivot
make joint from eye pivot through to center of pupil. jnt_L_eye and nbj_L_eye_end hold V while moving something -> snap to vertex
parent eye joints to head

arms. self explanatory

feet. self explanatory. ankle, ball, toe. heel is unnecessary
you can add a couple extra NBJ joints for ease if you want (eg palm on hand) but not too
when in doubt feel out your own joints. where do they rotate? what rotation points are most important? many….

Hold V while creating something -> snaps new thing to closest vertex to click

Labs Page 3
Joint rotation
Wednesday, 19 March 2025 2:15 pm

Rotation order: x y z
X: twist along the joint This is to avoid gimbal lock -> rotating in the middle of the order makes it really easy for gimbal lock to
y: least common rotation for the joint happen and then rotations get weird
Z: next (or most) common rotation for the joint

Rotation order: y z x:
Y: twist along the joint
Z: least common rotation for the joint
X: next (or most) common rotation for the joint

Notation order --->

Rotation order: x y z You can rip scripts from the script editor with middle mouse + drag and then if you put it on the custom
X: twist along the joint toolbar itll make a button for it.
y: least common rotation for the joint
Z: next (or most) common rotation for the joint

Notation order <---

Rotation order: x y z
Z: twist along the joint
y: least common rotation for the joint
X: next (or most) common rotation for the joint

Putting controls on joints:

- Make control shape in 2 nested groups

- Freeze transforms of shape and parents
- Select groupgroup and then bone, match all transforms
- Freeze translate of groupgroup
- Rotate/scale control shape to look nicer

MAKE SURE CONTROL PIVOT IS ON THE JOINT BALL

Then freeze joint (oana shelf) after this ^

Labs Page 4
Example rig controls - max&kayla
Wednesday, 2 April 2025 3:49 pm

Labs Page 5
Rig format
Wednesday, 7 May 2025 1:15 pm

Root - dark blue

Ik target - default (dark blue? I cant change it?)

Movable (translation) - light blue

Handle (1 axis) - green
Handle (2 axis) - yellow

Labs Page 6
Constraints (general)
Wednesday, 7 May 2025 3:24 pm

Make sure controls are in a hierarchy as well - match the hierarchy of the rig.
Control shapes should be the parent of the next grp_grp_ctrl under it

Constraints are the icons on the rigging shelf with the chain in the top right
Or on the rigging version of the menu in the constrain submenu

PARENT CONSTRAINT - click PARENT then CHILD then constrain

==
CONTROL then JOINT then constrain

Aim vector:
- Uhhhh
- Aim vector - vector pointing at control. Do not constrain in constrain axes
- Up vector - the one pointing up I guess? Except this one was a bit weird so maybe just trial and
error it
- Constrain both axes other than aim vector

Dude how many arms does this guy have

Labs Page 7
IK/FK
Friday, 6 June 2025 9:32 am

FK -> controls the same as regular parent/child constraints

IK -> controls joint chain based on position of the end of the chain

Rigging in Maya: Forward and Inverse Kinematics 2025 | AKO | LEARN

Labs Page 8
Labs Page 9
Labs Page 10
IK/FK Switch
Friday, 6 June 2025 4:09 pm

Labs Page 11
Finger controls
Friday, 6 June 2025 9:32 am

Rigging in Maya: Finger Controls and Reverse Foot | AKO | LEARN

Labs Page 12
Reverse foot
Wednesday, 21 May 2025 3:00 pm

Single chain ik handle:

Ankle->ball (ball handle)
Ball->toe (toe handle)

Create rev foot joints:

Ankle, ball, toe with rev_ prefix
Create heel joint ON GROUND SURFACE at the heel.. Area
Reparent the rev joints: heel->toe->ball->ankle (reverse foot……. Get it)

Parent handles with rev foot joints:

Ankle handle (foot ik handle from earlier) ->parent-> rev heel
Rev toe joint ->parent-> toe ik handle
Rev ball joint ->parent-> ball ik handle

NOW:

HEEL JOINT: Controls foot movement PIVOTING FROM the heel

TOE JOINT: Controls foot movement PIVOTING FROM the toe
BALL JOINT: Controls toe bending

Make controls for each and parent constrain to joints

Make sure that the controls are children of joints that should control them (toe end should
move when heel rotates, ball should move when either heel OR toe rotates)

Only active when IK is active -> set IK blend of 3 IK handles to 0 while FK is active, to prevent reverse
foot taking control. Reverse foot is a separate system to IK leg but also kinda not

Also hide the rev foot controls with the IK controls

FK foot can just control the toe and ankle and stuff regular style

Labs Page 13
Skinning
Friday, 6 June 2025 9:03 am

Eyes & hair are easy. They just completely follow their bones

Hair (AND EYEBROWS) follow head bone (NOT head end, that's only for something that might move separately to the head)
Eyes follow…….eye bones (since I have them as 2 separate meshes I don’t have to worry about splitting them between the bones)

Simplest way to bind a skin is (rigging menus) skin -> bind skin (use these options)

Mouth stuff is also easy but theres more bits

Lower jaw->jaw bone, upper jaw->head bone

Tongue has its own joints uuughh

- Children of jaw bone
- make a control for it too
○ I made it IK for fun :) cos im sooo cool. I shouldn’t have spent time on this
○ and a control for where its pointing

because the tongue is curvy it gets bound to all its joints so select all joints except the nbj and then
tongue mesh & bind it same as before
ooOoo even just regular bind skin makes the mesh follow the closer joints. automagically
(like envelope weights in blender?)

BODY SKINNING:
select all joints

by searching 'jnt*' in here (make sure constraints have been renamed cos they’ll automatically take the name of the thing the yre constraining) (also deselect tongue joints they arent part of this)

then select the body mesh

INSTEAD of just basic Bind Skin we're going to do the Fancy Interactive Bind Skin (use these options - note dual quaternion skinning method. this can cause trouble for game engines,
- this adds capsules around bones that influence weights and stuff & lets you edit them easier than weight painting but with less fine control she said, but there's fixes, which I havent got to yet.)
- tool settings for interactive skin binding tool lets you select all the capsules and do stuff with them
- they’ll also show up when you select the bone with the tool active
○ I don’t know how normal it is but the weights were SCARY before I edited the capsules
○ so edit the hell out of all of them
○ including giving a little bit of weight on the eyelids from the eyes

put interactive skin binding tool on the custom shelf you switch in and out of it a lotttt testing the weights

need to normalize weights but didn’t have time

(I should put this in the reflection probably)
Didn't have time to figure out manual weight painting, but I'm pretty happy with how the capsules ended up. if I WERE to clea n some bits up id do:
lips, ears, base of jaw, armpits, fingers (maybe), thighs

Labs Page 14
Didn’t have time
Friday, 6 June 2025 3:49 pm

SKINNING

need to normalize weights but didn’t have time - this means the tongue sometimes pops out of the jaw & the controls arent always synced up right. oops

Didn't have time to figure out manual weight painting, but I'm pretty happy with how the capsules ended up (except for the fa ct they arent normalised). if I WERE to clean some bits up id do:
lips, ears, base of jaw, armpits, fingers (maybe), thighs

FOREARM TWIST

set driven keys .. they um. they move when other bones move, so the bone movement, is more specific

using helper bones

I don’t know how to explain this

regular bone -> driver helper bone-> driven helper bone gets put in the position you want it when the regular bone has moved in the way that you want it to wh en something weird happens

you can do it with the different parts of transformations (translate xyz, rotate xyz, etc)

nevermind I don’t have time for this sorry. I tried

Labs Page 15