Tutorials: Under Your Rig's Hood
These videos will go over the basic layout of your standard biped rig. You'll learn what makes the rig tick: what we do to get the limbs to move, how a spine works, the magic behind facial expressions. We'll teach you about controls, how to avoid things like Gimbal Lock, and the basics of skinning (attaching the geometry to the rig).
3.06a Skinning: Demo
Duration: 11:48
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A demonstration of joints controlling geometry through the process of skinning, and then painting weights to determine which vertices are effected (and how much) by each joint.
3.06a Skinning: Demo
3.06b Skinning On a Character (Lo-Res)
3.06b Skinning on a Character (lo-Res)
Duration: 5:01
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A video to demonstrate what the painted weights of a low resolution character looks like. In this case, we'll be demonstrated what Max's painted weights look like.
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Files: Max Rig
3.01 Skinning
Duration: 0:57
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An introduction to what skinning is, and why it's important for animators to understand how their characters are skinned and how weights can be painted for editing skin influences.
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3.06 Skinning
3.06c Skinning on a Character (norm-Res)
Duration: 3:01
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In this video we'll cover the same as the lo-res, going over the weights of a character but this time we'll use Bonnie, who has a more normal level of verts and edgeloops. This will show us what skinning on an average resolution character looks like.
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Files: Bonnie Rig
3.06c Skinning On a Character (Norm-Res)
3.06d Skinning: Deleting History
3.06d Skinning: Deleting History
Duration: 2:12
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Skinning is one of those active nodes feeding information constantly into our geometry that we can never delete without losing the connetion between joint and skinning. Do NOT delete history on geometry that is skinned!
3.06e Skinning: Blendshape Corrective Shape
3.06e Skinning: Blendshape Corrective Shape
Duration: 5:01
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We talked about blendshapes used to create facial expressions, but in this video I'll show how blendshapes can be used and painted out to specific areas of the body to create corrective shapes. This can be used in animation for areas where the skinning is bad or for silhouette fixes. Blendshapes can be keyed on and off for single or multi frame use.
3.05a Facial Rigs: Off-Face vs On-Face Controls
Duration: 5:01
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There are two main methods of facial rig controls: on face controls and off face controls. Both have their pros and cons, and we'll look at off-face controls in this video
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Files: Max Rig
3.05a Facial Rigs: Off-Face Controls
3.05b Facial Rigs: On-Face Controls
3.05b Facial Rigs: On-Face Controls
Duration: 3:12
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In this follow-up video, we'll take a look at on-face controls and their benefits, as well as talk about blendshape vs facial rigging and how to tell the difference.
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Files: Bonnie Rig
3.05 Facial Rigs
Duration: 1:45
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In this intro we'll talk and on face vs off face controls, blendshape vs rigging, and a base overview of facial rigs.
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Files: Max Rig, Bonnie Rig, and Morpheous Rig
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3.05 Facial Rigs
3.05c Facial Rigs: Blendshape Demo
Duration: 12:46
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In this video I'll demonstrate how to set up your own blendshape to add a custom facial expression that you may need that the rig does not provide. This is one of the few cases where you can very easily add to a rig without knowing rigging well.
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Files: Max Rig
3.05c Facial Rigs: Blendshape Demo
3.05d: Facial Rigging: Combining Multiple Blendshapes
3.05d Facial Rigging: Combining Multiple Blendshapes
Duration: 4:35
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Following the last video, we'll cover how you can have multiple targets in a single blendshape node. In other words, you can sculpt and connect many different blendshapes under one blendshape node.
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Files: Max Rig
3.04a Spines: Integrated Ik/Fk Setup
Duration: 6:00
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As a follow up to the last video, we'll dig into an integrated setup, as seen in Bonnie. Integrated spines often give the animator more of the anatomic look of a human spine, but come with less direct control. Most normal-level rigs utilize an integrated spine.
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Files: Bonnie Rig
3.04a Spines: Integrated Ik/Fk Setup
3.04b Spines: Control Walk-through
3.04b Spines: Control Walk-through
Duration: 5:59
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Spines can often have more controls on them than seem necessary or immediately clear. We'll do a basic walk through of ik and fk controls, their purposes, and why riggers include them.
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Files: Max Rig, Bonnie Rig
3.04 Spines: Ik and Fk
Duration: 4:30
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In this intro to spines, we'll cover the two different main principles of spine set up: Separated Fk/Ik Chains (like a limb) or integrated setups. For this video, we'll dig into the separated Fk/Ik spine as scene in Max.
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Files: Max Rig, Bonnie Rig
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3.04 Spines: Ik and Fk
3.04c Spines: Squash and Stretch
Duration: 3:13
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The trickiest part of a standard spine setup for a rigger is the squash and stretch. Some rigs use math nodes, others use expressions to drive the scale of x and z, as y grows or diminishes.
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Files: Max Rig, Bonnie Rig
3.04c Spines: Squash and Stretch
3.02a Joints: Fk Chain
Duration: 6:04
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Fk chains are a vital part of any rig. We'll show a quick demonstration of creating a joint chain and turning it into an Fk chain for, in example, an arm.
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3.02a Joints: Fk Chain
3.02b Joints: Ik Chain
3.02c Joints: Ik Chain
Duration: 6:10
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Following the creation of an Fk chain, we'll demonstrate in this video how to turn an Fk chain into an Ik chain by inserting an ikHandle.
3.03 Joints
Duration: 1:13
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In this intro to joints we'll talk about what a joint is, how to create one, and the quick and basic setup of a chain.
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3.03 Joints
3.02c Joints: Ik Chain Control
Duration: 0:42
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As a quick follow up to the video demonstrating ik chain creation, we'll show how you would parent a controller to the ikHandle in order to drive the ik chain.
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3.02c Joints: Ik Chain Control
3.02f Joints: Rotation Order
3.02f Joints: Rotation Order
Duration: 1:20
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One way to make sure your rig isn't making Gimal Lock worse is to check the rotation order of the control you're working with. Setting the right rotation order is the riggers job, but if they've missed that step in any way, it could cause excess gimbal lock for you, the animator.
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Files: Max Rig
3.02e Joints: Gimbal Lock
Duration: 9:59
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A common problem animators run into with rigs is Gimbal Lock. In this video we'll discuss what's causing it and how best to avoid it.
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Files: Max Rig
3.02e Joints: Gimbal Lock
3.02d Joints: In the Rig
3.02d Joints: in the Rig
Duration: 2:32
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Now that we know the basics of joint creations, lets take a look at how joints function in a working rig. We'll demonstrate what's happening to the joints behind the scenes as you move your character around.
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Files: Max Rig
3.01a Controls: Custom Curves
Duration: 9:29
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To create your own unique curves or to edit the curves of a rig, you need to know how to create curves in Maya and edit them in CV mode.
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3.01a Controls: Custom Curves
3.01b Controls: Pivot Points
3.01b Controls: Pivot Points
Duration: 5:01
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Building off of the concept of pivot points learned in the Rigging Concepts section of Rigging Level Zero, pivot point manipulation on curves allow us to place the pivot point in the necessary spot, while still providing an easily selectable control. However, some controls come with a catch: pivot points are not moveable on Ik controls.
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File: Max Rig
3.01 Controls
Duration: 9:16​
Possibly the most important part of a rig for an animator, controls allow you to move the character, key the character, and pretty much do your job! In this video we'll talk about control creation and how to make unique controllers by combining shape nodes of various curves.
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3.01 Controls
3.01c Controls: Hidden Attributes
Duration: 7:40
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We talked about hiding objects and we talked about locking attributes, but we haven't talked yet about attributes that are locked and hidden. While a good rig will only lock and hide what isn't necessary for an animator to touch, what happens when you really want one of those attributes back?
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File: Max Rig
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3.01c Controls: Hidden Attributes
3.01f Controls: Facial Controls
3.01f Controls: Facial Controls
Duration: 5:00
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Facia rigs can be some of the most complex parts of a rig. In this video we'll do a walkthrough of common facial controls, what to keep an eye out for in bad rigs vs good, common extra attributes, and some commonly misnamed ones too.
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Files: Max Rig
3.01e Controls: Extra Attributes Pt 2
Duration: 10:03​
Now that we've looked at a couple of these extra attribues, let's walk through a rig and talk about the places some extra attributes may be kept, some less popular places to search for common extra attributes, and a couple trade secrets of riggers.
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Files: Max Rig
3.01e Controls: Extra Attribute Pt 2
3.01d Controls: Extra Attributes Pt1
3.01d Controls: Extra Attributes
Duration: 5:56
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A lot of times rigs will come with extra attributes on controls. Some are intuitive and easy to spot, others are more difficult.
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Files: Max Rig
3.01g Controls: Limting and Unlimiting
3.01g Controls: Limting and Unlimiting
Duration: 2:29
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Way back when in the attribute editor video in the Maya Interface section of Rigging Level Zero, we talked about limiting information on controllers. Let's talk about it now once more, where it's most often employed: facial controls!
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Files: Max Rig
3.00 Introduction
3.00 Introduction
Duration: 1:19
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Just a quick video to cover what sorts of things you can look forward to learning in this final section of Rigging Level Zero: Under Your Rig's Hood!
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3.03 Ik and Fk Limbs
Duration: 5:01
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Expanding on what we've covered in Rigging Concepts and the joint videos of this section, we'll do a walk through now of the Ik and Fk limbs in a fully functional rig. We'll discuss the do's and dont's of when to use Fk/Ik, their purpose in a rig, and a demonstration of the switch between the two.
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Files: Max Rig