#RiggingInMaya | Part 10 | Intermediate | Roll & Twist Joints

so here we are with video 10 yep I know of 10 videos already and you may be wondering where we need to go from here you have now built a basic rig and could happily animate this guy so you have all the knowledge to go on and rig your own character the problem is this is exactly that a basic rig don't get me wrong working through these videos has given you the foundations to now build upon but the rig does have its issues if you look at the way the shoulder rotates it seems fine around the Z and X axes but when you rotate around the y axis it deforms badly ideally it should twist around the upper arm not the shoulder and to help achieve this we will be adding what's known as a roll joint the same happens at the wrist although it also needs some weights are just in here - by the looks of things again when we rotate around the y-axis it doesn't twist in the right place this also needs to rotate around the forearm we can also see these issues of the like - especially around the thigh area and it looks like we have some ways to fix two but an extra roll joint here would help even with the ankle we could add a roll joint to help it twist - I know your uncle doesn't naturally twist in this way but adding another royal joint gives the animator a bit more flexibility especially if you're working on a rig for a cartoon character now before we dive in I just wanted to mention that you can now download all the source files for each part of this rigging in mayor series from my cube brush page you can find the link in the description below and I will be updating this constantly every time a new video is uploaded while you're there why don't you grab some of the other tutorials models or rigs I have on offer most are free but if you would like to help contribute to these videos all donations are welcome alternatively if you enjoy these videos and want to say thanks why not just simply treat me to a coffee all you need to do is head to the link on the screen and in the description below right let's dive in so as mentioned previously we ideally need to move the twist movement from the actual shoulder down to the bicep area so start by duplicating the humerus joint and move out of the hierarchy let's delete everything beneath it - I'm also going to make this a bit bigger so we can see the new joints more clearly and we will also rename this to add royal on the end this is essentially going to be the new shoulder joint so this will have the weighting applied to it instead of the original humerus joint we now need another joint so duplicate this and rename it to bicep underscore world now you could just move this down the axis to where the middle of the upper arm is but I prefer to be a bit more precise select the humerus and radius joints and then the new bicep royal joint and go to constrain parent and open the options make sure maintain offset is disabled so the joint will move into the correct position and not stay where it is if we click apply now you'll notice that the access is misaligned this is because the new joint is trying to stay between the humerus and radius joints while also matching their orientations let's undo that and try again with rotate disabled that's better the joint is now only using the position of the other joints so it doesn't rotate to try and match the orientation of the radius joint just delete that constraint now because we don't need it anymore and let's parent the bicep royal joint to the humerus royal joint so now we have the roll joints in place and we can use this to deform the model instead in fact I'll also turn on rotational axes so you can see how these rotates as we add to the controls the idea is that the humerus roll joint will control the X and z axes so won't have any Y rotation instead that will be offset to the bicep royal joint so move those and parent them to the main humerus joint this way they will follow as a current rig is animated what we need now is a way to lock the y-rotation so as the shoulder control is moved the Y rotation on the humerus joint stays as it is create a locator and rename it to left humerus roll em you we're going to use this as a way to lock the y-axis let's quickly use a parent constraint to move it into the same position as a humerus joint actually we need the orientation to I'll delete the constraint node and let's make it a bit smaller I'm going to move the locator behind the arm to what we need to do is make new z-axis which is pointing forward always look at the locator so to achieve this we'll use an aim constraint open the options and I'll just reset them - even though the z-axis is going to point to the locator we still need the joint to rotate with the rest of the arm so we are actually going to make the joint aim at the elbow our radius joint we know that the y axis is pointing down the bone so change in vector to one in the second column which represents Y we now need to tell the z axis to follow the locator so change world up type to object up and to put the name of the M locator into the world up object box currently the up Vector is set to y2 but we want to control the z-axis looking at the joint there the z axis is pointing forward yet the locator is behind so set the third column to minus 1 now select the radius joint first because this is what we are aiming at then the humerus roll joint because this is the joint being controlled and click at if you move the locator you will see that even though the royal joint is aiming at the elbow we can control the weight twists by moving the locator now you can see that as we rotate at the shoulder control we still have movement around the x and z axis but when we rotate around the y axis it doesn't move so this is perfect even though this helps lock the Y rotation there are pauses where the rotation will just flip like here as the arm moves forward the joint flips which isn't ideal we can get around this by moving the locator as you can see it fixes the issue but you don't want to be in a position where the animate has two controls to work with so we need a way to make the locator move with the arm but also stay behind it duplicate the roll joints and move them behind the arm also move them out of the hierarchy - we don't want these to be part of the main skeleton structure just delete that redundant constraint nerd and let's rename these maybe add em to the end oh wait that names already used okay let's use follow instead and do the same with the bicep joint you now parent the M locator to the new humerus follow joint so will move as a joint does we now need the new joints to follow the main arm but we don't want them to twist and raise the locator up go to skeleton Korea IKEA handle and open the options just move this over what we need is a real tape playing solver build one between the two follower joints now as the I care handle moves the joints follow and so does a locator let's rename the I care handle and then parent it to the elbow sorry radius joint you I'm also going to hold down V and snap it to the same place too you so now as the arm rotates the eyecare handle moves with it which in turn moves the follow joints and the locator but we have another problem the y-axis is no longer locked because the I care handle is also twisting and causing the locket to rise luckily this can be easily fixed select the I care handle and set the pole vector attributes to 0 0 0 now the y-axis is locked again you can rotate the arm again but it's much more stable if we try and copy what we did previously so raise the arm and rotate around the x-axis you will see that it no longer flips yes it does start to twist at extreme angles but that's much better than a flip in fact what we could do is move the locator a bit further back and see if that reduces the effect you that does look a bit better but you can play with the position of the locator to get better results depending on your rig I would maybe even try moving it out - so it's further down the arm towards the wrist the main thing is we now have a more solid shoulder rotation with little or no rotation around the y-axis so that's the shoulder setup so let's now make the bicep joint twist don't worry this is quite simple as all we need to do is transfer the rotation from the main humerus joint down to the bicep royal joint open the node editor just move this up so you can actually see it that's better so I'm going to add the biceps royal joint first and then the left humerus joint this is the main skeleton joint not to the roll or the follower joint remember that the main humerus joint is still rotating around all the axes we only locked the roll joint what we can do is simply connect the wire rotation from the humerus joint to the bicep royal joint now as we rotate at the shoulder or should I say twisted the humerus roll joint is steady but the bicep joint is now twisting so we are getting all the correct rotations in the right places the problem is the bicep is probably rotating too much we ideally need a gradual blend from the shoulder down to the elbow again this is easily fixed as you have seen before in these videos we can just use a multiply divide node not mush node there we go I'm going to rename this to left arm roll multi because we can also use this node to help set up the wrists later on to open these up I'm going to connect the rotate Y attribute from the humerus joint to input 1x and then output X to the root why attribute on the bicep joint so this is acting as a go-between essentially at the moment it looks the same because we haven't set the amount the rotation needs to be multiplied by we can change the input to X attribute and this will be multiplied by the main rotation value so let's just have it with a value of not point five now we are getting a much more tician down the arm I'll just turn off the rotational axes on these photo joints we don't need to see them so it looks like we have another issue as we twist the arm the bicep is rotating but it seems to get slower the more we twist even though I discussed rotation orders in an earlier video we never really set them up for this character as we were building him so they are likely step to the default value of XYZ yep XYZ so what's happening is as the joints are rotating each axis is affecting the other so we are essentially not getting a true y axis rotation value the default value of XYZ will be fine if Z was pointing down the bone because the z axis is independent according to that rotation order what we need to do is change this to represent Y pointing down the bone instead so we essentially need Y at the end of the rotation order so let's change this to Z X Y we also need to update the humerus roll joint and the main humerus joint too so they all match if they don't match you will end up with conflicting values which may result in the limb flipping okay that's fixed it and as a future point in a future tip well in doubt if things are flipping always check your rotation orders actually I'm going to update the rest of the arm to so they all match you there we go we have the shoulder and bicep setup now let's look at the wrist before we rework the skin waves with the rest we need a slightly different setup but it is a bit simpler duplicate the radius joint and delete everything beneath it I rename eighths to left radius world you let's also duplicate that joint and rename it to left wrist well I'll just increase the size again so we can see them and also make the rotational axes visible so the wrist roll joint needs to be where the wrist is so I'm just going to use a quick parent constraint to match its position with the radius roll we need it to be between the radius and the wrist so just as we did with the bicep use another parent constraint to constrain just the transforms so it sits between them also remember to delete the constraints when done you it looks like these are parented to the humerus change that parenting them to the left radius joint instead so they follow the elbow so we now have a roll joints to control the forearm and a joint at the wrist which like the shoulder will have the Y rotation locked you we are going to use another aim constraint to achieve this and another aim locator to control it copy the humerus roll em locator and move it out of the hierarchy rename it to left wrist rule in that's parent constrain this to the rest roll join quickly to get the correct position and orientation and delete that nerd we will also move this back to now parent the locator to the main wrist joint so it moves with it you with the humerus roll joint we set it to aim at the radius joint we're going to do the same here open the aim constraint options set the world up object to be the wrist roll em locator now select the radius joint and also the wrist roll joint looking at the wrist the y-axis is pointing away from the radius joint so we need to change the aim vector to minus 1 instead of 1 the up Vector can stay the same now as we move the locator the wrist roll joint follows if you've now adjust the risk control you will see that the wrist roll will only move when the wrist is twisted so now to wire up the radius rule joint and it's exactly the same as we did with the bicep joint if you go back to the node editor you should still have the same nodes you were using before at the wrist roll and radius roll joints let's open these up like I said before we can use the same multiply divide node because it has three inputs and they are all independent if we connect the rotate y attribute directly we get the movement we need but like the bicep is too much Connect rotate Y on the wrist roll joint to the input one Y attribute on the multiply divide nerd now connect the output Y attribute to the rotate Y attribute on the radius royal joint let's also change the amount of rotation is x to not pond5 again to have it there we go that works we can now rotate the wrist and the forearm will twist no matter where the hand is obviously you will be able to see it better when we update the skin weight so those are the main rule joints added and wired up as a final step parent constraint the humorous follow joint to the shoulder joint this way they will follow as the rest of the body moves just make sure maintain offset is enabled this time there we go so the role systems are in all we need to do now is make them drive the mesh so let's do that next go to skin and the influences add influence and open the options with the default values if you add an influence to a skin model it will apply default weighting values which does usually affect all your of the ways which isn't ideal especially if you spend a long time working on them click the lock weights checkbox and leave the default wake slider at 0 this will add the joints to the skin cluster but not apply any weight values to them so you can keep the exact weights you began with select the bicep rule the humerus rule and the radius roll joints we don't need the rich roll joint to be weighted as that's only used for its rotation value add the model to the selection and click apply next go to skin paint skin weights and open the options you will see that we now have the new joints listed as influences also if you select them they currently have no weight values applied which is perfect they are also currently locked as you can see with the yellow padlocks so start by unlocking them let's push the shoulder so we can see the roll joints in action the humorous royal joint is going to be the new main influence for the shoulder so select that first let's use add and reduce the opacity so we can gradually build up the ways as we start to add the wage you can see the shoulder almost rolling back into the correct position you let's now move down and work on set roll you it looks quite extreme but I prefer to just throw the weights on and then soften them later because the humerus roll now controls the shoulder we no longer need than base humerus joint to influence the model actually let's operation to replace and just flood the model to quickly remove the ways we can now go back to the humerus roll joint and use smooth to see if we can soften this area and the back too you let's do the same with a bicep roll I think we need to bend the elbow to so we can work on the crease and the outer elbow because the bicep joint needs to influence those yeah because we remove the humerus influence the weights have shifted so this needs fixing just go through and add some more influence here you and on the outer elbow now I'm just doing this quickly for now to be honest I will probably come back and refine all the weights later with ng skin tools I'm really not a big fan of Mayer's default built-in skinning tools you so that's looking better let's move this area now you and under here so I might actually speed up the video a bit here if you want to see a more in-depth tutorial on painting weights check out the previous video in this series you okay so there you can see the twist in action we have no rotation on the shoulder instead it's being passed to the bicep area just tied the joints for now it needs more work but you're getting the general idea as you can see even with this quick once-over its deforming in a much more natural way so let's reset these bring back the joints okay on to the wrists always pose the area you're working on first just going to block in the forearm area right down to the wrist you soften this now you we have some stray weights up here just get rid of those switch to the radius joint so let's remove these down here this needs to be influenced by the wrist or the roll joint not the radius let's see if we can smooth these out you more stray weights Mayer's weight painting tools aren't the best it seems when you smooth it just picks random vertices you there's just something about this area that doesn't look right let's try pausing the hand okay so the wrist is influencing the arm that's probably the issue actually it looks so weights from the wrist but knowing mayor it could be from something like the fingertips let's just check through the fingers you now there we go the end of the thumb Y or Y so let's clean those up look at that there's also an influence on the elbow okay let's check the other fingers the ring looks okay okay so more on the pinky you right I think we're good let's look at the wrists now you let's give that a try far although we have an influence on the stomach area just tied the joints you yet the firearm is twisting nicely now again this is just a quick once-over of the weights I would make sure you spend more time on them you let's try posing the whole arm you forearm looks good a lot more natural bicep looks good too just reset these and bring back the joints - it's probably a good idea to clean up the hierarchy - I'll just move the humorous fellow into the left-arm group and hide the locators you so there we have the left arm done complete with roll joints you even though we've applied these to the left arm you can use exactly the same process for the like just treat the thigh like a shoulder and the ankle like a wrist what men do now is I'm gonna work through the rest of the model to get all the royal joints in and working but there are a few things to keep in mind as you work on the legs when working on the aim constraint for the ankle you don't want the z-axis to shift so it points to the knee because this will break the ankle so in this instance have maintained offset enabled you just stay aware of the orientation so you set them up with the correct axis pointing the right way also with the radius rule we just focused on the rotate Y attributes when connecting them to the multiply divide node with the ankle you will need to connect rotate Z instead you and finally if you find that the twist is reversed just invert the value in the multiply divide node so set it to minus nine point five instead of not point five so there we go all set up with both arms and legs you as you can see the way the thigh deforms is much better with a nice gradual twist down to the knee making it look a lot more natural there's no extra attributes for the animator to worry about or edit they work quietly in the background you like I said earlier the ankle doesn't twist like this not naturally anyway but it's good to have the option for more flexible characters we have a nice twist down the forearm there's an issue here and this is what happens if you don't set the rotation orders once the wrist gets to a certain point it starts to reverse so I need to go in and just make sure those are set you here you can see the joints for the thighs I just move them to either side and then parent constrain them to the COG joint so there we go roll joints done I think while we're working on the limbs we might look into making them even more flexible with some squash and stretch and that's probably what we'll do in the next video and then after that we'll start to investigate creating a facial rig so I hope you've enjoyed this video if you have please let me know in the comments below also let me know if you have any questions and also tell me what future videos you would like to see remember to download the files from my queue brush page and why not say thanks with a small donation via my coffee page as always remember to like this tutorial and subscribe to my channel to keep up to date with future videos this is antsy GI signing off and I will see you on the next one [Music] you

Channel: antCGi

Views: 34,887

Keywords: rigging, maya, autodesk, maya3d, rigging in maya, utility nodes, rig, node editor, nodes, 2019, maya 2019, Multiply Divide Node, gamedev, game art, game development, game rig, Paint, Paint Skin Weights, Mirror Weights, Skinning, Smooth, Replace, Add, roll joints, twist joints, shoulder flip, bicept, wrist, ankle, thigh, aim contrait, locator, ik handle

Id: So92TVHSB1g

Length: 43min 57sec (2637 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 08 2019