Rigging is the process of taking 3D models and creating/adding functionality to them. This process can also be known as puppeting, so named for the process of taking a doll and attaching strings to the various parts of it to create a puppet out of it. However you look at it the process of rigging is all about preparing models to be animated in the most effective and efficient way possible.
Absolutely everything you do during the rigging process should focus on adding functionality and efficiency for your animators. The only other aspect would be maintainability or pieces are required for the pipeline processes, but even then that allows the animator to focus on what they do best which is animate rather than worrying about technical issues.
What is adding functionality to something and why do we care?
Simply put the process of adding functionality to something is creating a way for some action to be done that otherwise wasn't present before you added it. An example of added functionality that you have already done was when you created the orbit groups for your planets in the first assignment. Prior to creating that group node with its pivot point in the center of the sun it was not realistically possible to animate the planet orbiting the sun while being able to rotate on its own axis simultaneously. This action was, albeit simplistic, a form of rigging in that you performed an action on an object or group of objects to better prepare it for animation. Additionally when you moved the pivot point for the moon to the center of its respective planet you were performing a similar, but different action of rigging. Two ways to solve a similar problem and both valid and effective.
Okay, what is the deal with efficiency? are we a sweat shop?
No! well... kinda... not really since it is still voluntary...
Some of the best features of a character rig are not fancy new features that add some kind new capability, but allow the animator to be more efficient with their time animating. Animation is a very tedious and repetitive task. An animators primary focus is to produce a memorable performance with their character. Technically it is possible for an animator to set keyframes on the individual vertices of a characters face and animate it into the poses they need for the character to talk. However, this is going to be extremely tedious, inconsistent and will very likely lead to a pretty bad result. By adding joints and other deformers to the facial model a character rigger can add tools and sliders that make the facial posing process much simpler which allows more time for fine-tuning the performance. There is no better way to be noticed than to create something that saves people time and frustration. The animators will like you more, the directors will love you and you will undoubtedly earn millions of adoring fans across the world. True story! :)
Man, getting a bit short are we?
There are a zillion different ways to setup a character rig and their complexity can range from the moronically simple to the insanely complex. Character rigging is all about problem-solving and engineering solutions to functionality and efficiency problems in the simplest way possible. At the end of the day you will never create a character rig that is completely bullet proof to every animation challenge. Sometimes you may need to create special rigs just for a small set of shots in a film. Some characters may have a half-dozen or so different rigs to have the right balance of functionality and efficiency needed for the animators to produce the best performance. Overall at the end of the day if your rig allows for the animation process to be quicker and look better then you are on the right track to doing well at this job.
In this lesson we are going to look at just a few simple aspects of the rigging process that will allow us to create a simple rig for our bionic spiders
We have already discussed hierarchy before when we built the solar system and even when we were cleaning up our bionic spider after modeling it. Apart from an objects pivot point and orientation the foundational basics of character rigging is in the use of object hierarchies. This again is the very thing we did with our solar system in assignment 1. Let's look at this a little bit deeper
Apart from creating a hierarchical relationship between objects we can use direct connection to have attributes from one object control another. Let's look at how that is done.
Additionally we can create other types of relationships between objects using constraints. Let's explore this process.
Sometimes we need to create custom attributes for our control curves or objects that allow us to provide some keyable (animation) controls for our animators to use. This video covers how that is done.
Another implementation of creating relationships between objects and attributes is a function that allows for creating an adjustable relationship from values in one attribute to values in any number of other attributes through an animation curve adjustable by the graph editor. This video explores that method of relationship generation.
Yet another type of object/attribute relationship is through scriptable expressions. For those that are more comfortable with basic coding will find some helpful capabilities in expressions. This video covers a basic introduction to this method.
While not our final relationship option, utility nodes takes a node set and process introduced in shading/texturing for use in creating logical node trees that can offer stability and capability in the rigging process as well. This video introduces this process and approach.
Everything we have covered to this point in rigging has been to work with and control objects at the object transformation level (translate, rotate and scale, custom attributes, etc.). A huge part of the rigging process also involves how objects have to deform during the animation process. Deformation is all about how the shape of an object changes rather than its transformation node. A simple example is that of a face. The polygonal object of the face can move around the scene 'hopefully' attached to a body. However, the eyes will blink, the brows with flex, the mouth will open and close and the cheeks will puff and pucker. All of these former examples deal with how the face deforms. In order to achieve deformations in Maya we need to use the various deformation tools they have provided. One of the most common and effective deformers is the joint tool and subsequently skinning your mesh to the joints so that as the joints move your polygon mesh deforms around it.
Let's explore the use of skeletons and skinning in Maya
Joints also have various tools that work to allow them to move differently like iKHandles. Let's look at Inverse Kinematics (IK) handles with joints.
There are a lot more ways to deform objects than with joints. This video introduces a few others that you can explore and utilize in rigging.
For your assignment this week you will be creating basic character rigs for your alien and ship models. Yes the ship can use a rig even though it isn't a character (But yes, it is very simple :-). Different from previous assignments you will be submitting your final scene file of the character rig rather than a rendered set of images or movies.
Please follow along with the following videos that walk through the rigging and animation process for your spider.
Your final deliverable will be a your saved maya scene files of your completed alien rig and your completed saucer rig. Submit this files on UNM Canvas to Assignment 6.