Jordan Whyte Bmet Level 3 Games Design/Level 3 Extended: L3 Extended-Rigging project

Rigging:

In this project my goals are to:

Learn how to do basic rigging skills

Create my own character

Create a 2d concept piece of that character

3d model that character

Rig that character

My stretch goals are to:

Uv and texutre my own character

Animate my character

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What is rigging?:

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Rigging menu's:

When setting up Maya for rigging you need to set the mode from modelling to rigging. This gives the user the rigging interface so you can access all of the rigging tools.

Next what you want to do is to set your shelf to rigging so you can access some of the rigging tools quicker. In this screenshot I did notice that the rigging setting was not applied at the top left I reset my Maya and forget to re apply it.

Once you have set your Maya up for rigging you can press space bar and left to click to select very specific tabs in this screenshot I select skeleton to show what the tab look like once it is detached.

Here is what the skeleton tab looks like once it is detached as and you will notice it shares the same tools as a the shelf so if you wanted to move your tools around for person preference you can.

Here is the skeleton tab and the skin tab open just to show that multiple tabs can be opened at once. The skin tab is used for binding geometry to the skeleton.

Breaking down the menu's:
In the screenshots below I have seperated all of the tabs from the rigging layout. This each individual tab can be sorted and it also shows what tools I will have to be familiar with later on.
Skeleton:

Skin:

Deform:

Constrain:

Control:

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Channel Box & Transformations:

In this screenshot I have opened the channel box so I can re name my mesh. The mesh is called pCube1 so if we double click that little text box we can rename the mesh.

In this screen shot you can see the cube has been renamed into Cube_Test so I know exactly what the cube is called. Next I go into windows to find the out liner tab where it will confirm if the cube has been named properly.

In this screenshot I have the channel box and the outliner tab open at the same time to show how the cubes name shows up on both sides. You can also move the outliner tab to the side after detaching it by dragging it onto the side bar.

Next we look into scalling and keeping its original scale for me I decided to scale my cube up by 1.55 but if you scale mesh by its vertices it keeps the exact scale you started with.

Here is proof after i rescaled with the vertices that the scale stays the same.

Next I am going to talk about adding sub divisions after re scaling. If you add subdivisions after re scaling it the model breaks.So to fix this you have to delete the object and delete its history and start again.

Once you have re imported the mesh of your choice add the subdivisions first so later on when it comes to modelling you won't have to worry about the scaling destroying your mesh.

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Outliner & Hypergraph:

After choosing your mesh's they need a name so everything can be identified if there is going to be multiple mesh's later on. In the outliner tab mesh's can be renamed.

Here is me pointing out that when you rename a mesh on one side it changes it on the other so they are identical,

Next you want to find the hypergraph tab so because we do not have a short cut to hand we need to go into windows and general editors. Once in the general editor section you click the dots at the top to detach it from the menu.

Once detached the tab should look something like this, the reason why we detach it is so it can be placed anywhere on maya for personal preference and for me I prefer being able to see all of the tools in a smaller tab.

Next you want to select the hypergraph hierarchy tool.

Once the hypergraph hierarchy has been selected you should be left with a tab like this. What this tab does it allows you to manage your mesh for rigging. Again this can be placed anywhere on Maya for personal preference.

If you select the cube in the outliner tab you will see that the cube box in the hypergraph will also light this is because they are linked together. It is that same cube and that is the reason why they share the same name. If you also look closely in the channel tab it tells the user what mesh you currently have selected.

In the final screen shot i selected multiple mesh's in the outliner tab and it had the same effect. As soon as you add a new mesh to your scene it will end up in the hypershade tab and will sit there until it is deleted.

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Customise layout:

When you open Maya this is the type of layout you get by default if it is in perspective mode press space bar so the screen is divided into four.

Next we are going to take a look at the default rigging preset at the top right there is a drop down bar when you click the work space tab.

Once the rigging work space is selected your layout should look similar to this however this rigging space can be very useful we are going to create a less complicated layout.

So now you want to go back to Maya classic so it reset the whole layout so we can start making adjustments.

This is the layout of Maya Classic.

Next we need to open the layouts tab so we need to click panels then layous and the select the top option beind the dots. When you select the dots at the top it detaches the tab from menu and you can move it around to however you like it.

This is what the layouts tab looks like.

Now what you wanna do is select three panes split top what this does is it removes to perspective camera angle and only leaves you with front,side and the top.

This is what your layout should now look like.

After setting the layout of that tab we need to edit the top - y area. So next we go into panel and select outliner.

Now if you Maya layout looks like mine we need to remove one of the outliners so i chose to detach the tab on the left and delete it.

Here is a screenshot of the outliner tab detached and about to be delted.

Here is what your layout should roughly look like certain area sizes can be different because it is all personal preference.

I personally prefer the outliner tab to be small so I have more modelling space. Next we have to add the hypergraph panel. So we need to select panels in the bottom area and click hypergraph panel the hypergraph hierachy.

This is what the bottom of the layout should now look like.

There is one more thing we have to do before this layout is ready and that is remove the time slider we are not using it at this stage so we can use that space for more important things. To delete the time line you need to hold space bar and then left clock and the right side of all of the tabs or in short the eastern area. Then left click and select time slider.

Now that the layout is set up for rigging we need to save it so every time we open Maya we do not lose our custom layout.

So now we must go back to the workspace layouts by clicking the tab and going all the way down to the bottom where its says save current workspace as.

Once that tab is clicked a little tab will open and in this tab you can label the layout so it can be re used when ever we need to rig. I saved mine as Rigging_Custom but again its all down to personal preference to what you call it.

One mistake I did notice when going through this process was that my are wasn't set to perspective so to fix that you need to goto panels,perspective and then persp to set it to perspective mode.

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Hypergraph Orientation-Schematic:

In the outliner tab I have renamed various objects so later on if I have mesh's that go by similar names I can tell the apart.

Next thing I am looking into is how the parenting system works. so after you select the assets you want to parent/child toy press p and it automatically puts the together. In the screenshot above toy can see the parent is the cube and the cone is the child.

Here is the two object parented together and as you can see at the top left in the outliner tab it shows these two as paired. This can be useful because its a quicker way to check what objects are paired if you never had the Hypergraph open.

Next I decided to selet the cylinder and the cone so the cylinder becomes the cones child.

Here is the whole family tree.

Even though they are all parented nicely there is another way you can present them so it is neater. You need to right click options,orientation and the change the orientation from horizontal to schematic.

Here is the end results all models are parented with each other nicely and the family tree also neatly presented. One more thing to note is the top of the family tree controls all of the other children beneath it so when the cube moves all of them move. When the cone moves the cylinder moves with it and when the cylinder moves nothing else moves because it is at the bottom of the chain.

Another tip when pairing you can also pair multiple objects to one object, you can do this by clicking the mouse wheel and dragging it onto the selected object.
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Creating a basic control:

Once you have selected an object of your choice you to be able to manipulate it without editing the geometry. This is where nurbs comes in handy. Nurbs can make it so you can manipulate the object but keeps its geometry just like it was from the start.

First things first is that we need to select the right nurb for the shape. For this cube we are going to be using the circle nurb.

Once the circle nurb is selected you will notice a few things for example how the nurb is visible in the chanel box the outliner box and the hyper graph section. The main bit for now that we want to focus on is the tab in the hyper graph area. We are going to start pairing the mesh and nurb together.

Once you have selected your geometry and paired it with the nurb it should look something like this. The nurb should be the parent because it is going to be controlling the geometry.

After the two are paired we need to test to see how the nurb transforms the geometry. As we can see at the top right in the channel box I have rotated and moved the geometry into various positions just with the nurb selected.

If we select all of the setting that's have been edited in the channel box we can set them all back to their default by pressing 0 and enter.

This is what the model should look like after the nurb has reset itself to 0.

We also need to edit the nurb so if this was a project we could tell what way the model should facing if it has changed from its original state. What we want to do next is to extend the the middle vertex with the move tool.

Next we want to scale in the sides so the nurb look like a guitar pick and that is how you set up a nurb control.

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Parenting:

When it comes to parenting you need at least two objects. One to be the parent and the other to be the child. I decided to have three so I could showcase the effects of parenting on multiple instead of just one object.

To parent object together you can select different objects and press p or click on the mouse wheel and drag them together. Once there are parented it is better to check if their orientation is set to schematic so it is nice and neat.

Once you have parented you can use the parent assign object to control objects. In this screenshot the cube is the parent and the cylinder and cone is its child. When the parent does one thing the children follow them.

Here is an example of the cube rotating and the two children objects copying the transformation.

Here is another example only I've swapped the parents around in this screenshot the cylinder is the parent and the cube and cone follow its exact move so I decided to scale the cylinder and the other objects followed.
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Local space & Global Space:

When creating a local space or a global space you need a nurb. Inside of the nurb is the local space and outside of the nurb is global space.

Next I import the model that I want to be partnered with the nurb.

Next I scale up the nurb so the nurb will fit around the model. I also parent the sphere with the nurb so the nurb is the parent.

I then move the model(child) away from the nurb(parent) so when I set the model's translations to 0 it sets it self to where ever the parent is.

Here is what the parent and the child looks like when they are together.

Next I am going to do the same but with duplicates to show how it would work with multiple parents and childs.
I selected the first parent and child and pressed ctrl+d to duplicate them. Because I duplicated it twice the icons are a bit different but there is a way to reset them.

To reset the icons you need to right click and go to graph and rebuild so it goes back to its default properties.

After resetting the icons I want to get all of the models to where the parents are set so what we I have to do next is to select all of the shapes at the same time. Head to the channel box and set their translations to 0.

After setting their translations to 0 this is what it should look like.

First things first we need to choose an object that you want to practise neutral nodes and naming conventions with. I have chose a cube as my object and the circle for the Nurb.

Once you have selected the object of your choice and the Nurb you need to parent the Nurb and the selected object together. The Nurb needs to be the parent because it is going to decided what our object does.

Once they are parented together make sure that the orientation is set to schematic. To do this you need to right click the hypergraph section (the bar at the bottom for me.) Next you need select options,orientations then schematic. This will nicely align the parent tree.

What this nurb does is alters the objects position,scale and angle without touching the actual object so when you look at the objects translations they will be set to what ever you left it at. As you can see in the image above I am editing the Nurbs rotation and it makes the object copy it.

If we reset the Nurbs translations to 0 the object will look reset to its last set point. For me this is the default of the object because I have set a point and saved over its original form.

Next what we want to do is separate the Nurb from the object and join them back together by grouping. You can group them together by pressing Ctrl and G.

Once they are grouped you want to delete the group and deselect everything. Once everything is delected pree ctrl+g again and it should create null. Once the null is created you want to rename it neutral control or ntrl control for short.

This is what your interface should look like once you have renamed the null.

Next what you want to do i select your Nurb and rename in Control control or Ctrl control for short.

After renaming the Nurb and the Null we need to parent the neutral control with the nurb. The nurb is the child.

Once the Nurb is around the selected object we need to make sure it is perfectly in line, to do this we need top of the face and shift right click and then select poker face.

This is what the face should look like once it has been poker faced.

We then need to select the nurb and hold be to snap it to the point. Once it has been snapped on both axis it becomes centralised.

Now that we have centered the nurb to the point we no longer need those edges at the top so you can select those and delete them with the delete edge tool.

To get the Nurb perfectly central with the height we need to select all the vertices.

Head to deform at the top and select cluster. What cluster does is creates a cluster of vertices in the centre of the object.

Once the cluster has been chosen it should create a cluster handle.

The cluster handle will help us centre the nurb so what we have to do now is to select the neutral control and snap it to the middle by holding v.

Once the child is perfectly centred to the object you can delete the cluster handle.

What this has done is make ctrl_control child of the neutral_control and the object or in my case the cube the child of the ctrl_control.

Once they are parented you can now edit the ctrl_control without editing he actual object.

What this helps us do is help manipulate the object without it actually effecting the object and once it has all been changed it can be reset and go back to the area where it was once set. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Controls-Create our 1st rig:

Spawn in plain.

Press t and set sub divisions to 1.

Rotate plain-e for rotate tool and hold J.

Select the model with object select tool and the press d to show the pivot point and the

v to snap the pivot point to the bottom.

Then select the plan and snap up to the grid using x.

Scale the plain up by using the scale tool.

Make a cut in the middle using the multi cut tool. Use ctrl and shift to get the cut exactly in the middle.

Select edges and extrude.Increase the offset.

Extrude the faces out to create the door frames.

Select doors and extract them.

Extract left door.

Delete right door

Extruding the left door.

Centre doorframes pivot point.

Spacebar->modify->centre pivot

After snapping the left door into place we need to duplicate it and snap it into place. What I did next was select the right door so the pivot point can be centred.

This is what the pivot point should look like once it is centred.

Separate the parent tree so we can remove all of the unseeded tabs with the delete history tool. Select everything and press delete history it will keep all of the main tabs.

This is what my hypergrapgh looks like once I have removed all of the unneeded tabs.

To keep everything organised I had to rename the objects. I named

the door frame geo_door_frame.the left door geo_door_L and the right door geo_door_R so everything is organised neatly to make the rigging process easier.

Next what we want to do is group all of the geometry together so once it is all selected press ctrl and g to group it all together. Once the group has been created rename the group Geo so we know that this is our geometry.

De select all then press ctrl+g to create a null and then rename the null ntrl_door_L.

Once the ntrl door l is selected bring it up to the middle of the left door and

hold v when snapping.

Copy ntrl_door_L and rename it ntrl_door_r

After the ntrl_door_R has been the point needs to be move to the other side so to do that we need to change the x translations into a minus so it moves to the left side.

Import circular nurb because we are going to start working on getting the doors to move. Because the geometry itself takes up so much space it makes it harder to see the nurb so we are going to turn the geometry off.

I have labelled the key areas in the picture above the yellow tab at the bottom is the geo tab this is the parent and controls all of the geometry. The little circle at the bottom right creates a layer but assigns the layer to the selected objects so all of my geometry is linked to that layer. The V on the layer tab stands for visibility currently it has a v in the box because the layer is on but if we click the v, the v will disappear as well as the geometry until we turn the geometry back on.

Next I prepare the Nurb for editing so I right click and go to control vertex what this does is enable me to make modifications to the vertices with various tools. If you look at the bottom right this visibility for the layer is off and this is what hides the geometry.

After selecting the vertex's I began modifying them with the scale tool and I renamed the Nurb ctrl_global this will come in handy later on.

For the next process we have to create the door hinges. The first thing I did was create a nurb and scale it up slightly so its easier to be seen. I then made the nurb the child of the selected door and set it to 0 so it went to the doors default pivot point. I then duplicated the nurb and made it the child of the opposite door and set the translations to 0.

Here is the final screenshot of my doors the do move properly but I didn't snap them in the exact place so the doors do rotate into the frame slightly but the rotation of the doors and the parent tree is set up correctly i just made a mistake when snapping them to certain pivot points.

In the exercise I was give the model and given the task to rig it. So I already started ahead in this section. What I have done to this model is rename all of the specific sections of the clock like the hour hand,minute hand and the body of the clock. I have also imported a nurb because we need this to continue the rigging process. What I have also done is create a group layer for all of the geometry to sit in so for any reason I want to turn my geometry off I can just click the visibility box and change it to no visibility.

In this screenshot I have labelled each individual tab so I know where each piece fits in the parent tree. I have labelled the parent Ctrl_Global because it is going to be controlling all of the geometry below.

Once the curve tool has been selected we need to open the tool setting on the top right hand corner and change the curve degree. As default Maya will set it to 3 cubic but for this shape we need to set it to 1 linear so the shape is straight with no curves.

Next I create a clock hand using the curve tool. I created the minute hand first and duplicated it and scaled it slightly so it fits the hour hands dimensions.

Here is a list of what all of these tabs do.

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Ideas,poses and creatures:

In the picture above I decided to list some type of characters I am interested in making. I have also inserted two pictures of posses of characters that are ready to be rigged. The pose I am going to be working in is the T pose because it's the most well known and I find it nicely spaced when modelling. Below all of this I have placed a picture of a biped(a two legged creature/animal and a quadruped(a four legged creature/animal. I'm planning on making a biped related character because I feel like rigging will be a challenge enough and I don't to set any goals that I can't meet.

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Creating my character/silhouette designs:

In the screenshot above I started drawing silhouettes of character ideas I had from the top of my head and tried to imagine these into a character. The first design I created was splitsy i created this sillhoute with un even look to it but when re creating I decided to turn it into a friendly blob. I used one of the the filters to make the honeycomb like effect and used the gradient tool for the split colour scheme. The reason why it is called splitsy is because of its unique split colour scheme and split it's personality. After creating this I thought of maybe turning a t.v into a character and that's when I created Telivi I called it telivi because its a television the became alive. I then liked the design of Telivi so much that I wanted to turn that concept of a tv coming an life and turn it into a biped.

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More silhouettes:

I also drew these silhouette design but telivi was my favorite by far. These designs didn't really stand out to me as much as the television robot so I stuck with that idea.

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My Character from different perspectives:

Here is telivi but from different perspectives. This helps show off its full design so you can get a good idea of what he will look liked once modeled. This reference image I created was also made to help me visualize the concept so I could model it in Maya.

Character T-Pose:

Next I created the T-pose image of my character so I could also visualize what it would roughly look like once modeled.

Pallet swaps:

I also created pallet swaps of my character to experiment with different colour scheme to see which one I like the best. I mainly did this so I could decided what colour I would texture my model if I had time to spare near the end of the project.

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3d modelling process:

In the screenshot above I imported my T-pose reference image which I created in Photoshop. This is where it really comes in handy because once I start blocking out I know how each individual joint will look once its in the T-pose.

The screenshot above shows most of my robot being blocked out. I used the four way perspective view so I can see my model from all perspectives. This helps keep my model in proportion from every angle.

After modelling the rest of my model and rounding the tv screen with the subdivision tool.

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Rigging Documentation:

In the screenshots below I go through a step by step process on who to create a computer generated rig with the quick rig tool. This is one of the ways you can rig and it can be a very helpful tool. The generated rig can also be manipulated to fit your model.

Footage of rig:

Here is the footage of my model with the auto rig applied,t as you can see the auto rig does not work with my model well. I am not too sure why my model doesn't connect well but I think it something to do with the way I modeled it. I modeled it all in parts and combined it all together to make one mesh but I think I should have welded the parts together. I looked for any tutorials and guides on to fix this but because I am new to rigging I don't know all of the terminology and I can't find a way to fix this issue. The only way I can fix this is by trying to fix my rig with no guidance on how to fix this problem.

My final edit to my model:

In the screenshots below I got through the process of welding all of my models part to gather so the can be permanently be joined. For each individual object I had to remove each face of where there would be another combining object. I did this so all of the vertex's would weld together with no issues.

In this screenshot I in the top view so i can pin point exactly where I need to add my multi cuts so I can then remove the right faces to make the right sized whole.

Here is an imaging of me welding the arm to my robots torso.

After that I began to repeat the process for each individual part that I was going to weld.

Here is a screenshot of me removing these faces with the edit mesh and delete edge/vertex tool.

Here is what the mesh looked like after I deleted the faces.

After repeating the process and duplicating each body part I welded it together. Now that this is all welded together it should make my character move more fluently once rigged.

Final Rig:

To create my final rig I used the create joints tool to create the spine. Once I created the spine I could then add other joints to finish the rest of the skeleton.

Here is my first attempt at creating my skeleton with this tool and some of the joints where not too straight so I made it again.

Here is the final skeleton that I created for my character. After making this in the front perspectives I then had to drag it into the mesh and bind them together with the bind skin tool.

Here is my final rig for my character.

My final animation of my model:

Here is my final demonstration of my characters feet moving with the rig. I created this Gif in photoshop and used the motion section to place each picture in frame by frame.

Final renders:

Here is my final renders over I think my model turned quite nice I prefer it with the ambient occlusion it because it makes it look a lot more smoother.

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Evaluation:

Rigging is a process where an asset is provided and structured so it can be animated later on. The rigger creates a skeleton for a specific asset whether it’s a character or an item that is used in game so it can work properly. After an asset has been rigged it is sent down the production line to the animator who will work with all of the rigs which is created by the rigger. Without a rigger there is nothing for the animator to animate so it is a very important job role.

Throughout this project I have researched various rigging menu’s and went through some tutorials that my tutor provided to help guide me in the project before he left. This helped me get an understanding of certain terminology used in the rigging world and also helped me get an understanding of how some of the basic tools work.

I also researched the definition of rigging online so I had another source of information. This is the first time being introduced to rigging so I needed to understand why rigs exist and how they help the whole game making process.

During this project I found myself getting stuck with the rigging process. I modelled my character in separate parts but didn’t realise this would be a problem for me later on. When it came to inserting a skeleton into my model it did not move how I wanted it to. It began to become warped and also separate from each other even though I combined all of the meshes together. To try and fix this problem I have tried using multiple ways of manipulating the skeleton to try and get it adjusted to my character but it did not work. To try and fix this I also welded to all of my robots body parts together but that didn't work quite how I wanted to. All of the joints move but most of them become warped.

In the future I feel like I could fix these issues by planning out my characters more by modelling various block outs and seeing which one would be the best option for me to work with. I also think that if I modelled my character anatomically correct I would have produced a stronger piece. For this project I think my rigging set up could have been a lot better, even with the time I had it did not turn out exactly how I wanted to but I am pleased all of the learning I had to do to try and even understand rigging. At the end of this I can say I know what rigging is and understand how it works but if I practised this in the future I believe I could get good at it and even find it fun.

As a whole I think I could improve my artistic skills by being better with my time management each year I say this because I think it’s one of my biggest weaknesses but it also makes me more determined to produce better work at a faster rate. Overall I developed as an artist I found rigging challenging especially when I couldn't find an actual source to why my rigs came out the way they did. I believe that this project has really pushed me to be more independent then what I already am. I looked for various ways and tried my best to solve the problems I faced. One of my own challenges was to create a character I actually liked the concept of and model it. This is a goal a think I have hit and I am very proud of it.

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Jordan Whyte Bmet Level 3 Games Design/Level 3 Extended

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L3 Extended-Rigging project

Rigging:

What is rigging?:

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