#RiggingInMaya | Part 17 | Intermediate | Global Controls & Scalability

hello and welcome to video 17 in my rigging in my series we've come a long way so thanks for sticking with me what we're going to do in this video is finalized the rig you've built over the past 16 videos given the animator the ability to move it globally while also letting them scale him fully - we will also investigate locking the rig down making it bulletproof so the animator can't accidentally break it which is a really important step now this may be the last time you look at this guy here and I'm sure some of you are sick of seeing it I know I am I started this series a year ago now so I'm looking forward to moving on to another character and sharing some more advanced techniques with you in the future ok but first let's finish this rig now before we dive in I just wanted to mention that you can now download all the source files for each parts of this rigging in my series from my cube brush page you can find a link in the description below while you are there why don't you grab some of the other tutorials models or rigs I have an 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 why not simply treat me to a coffee as a way of saying thank you just head to coffee calm /and cgi supporters now get exclusive rewards and early access to videos not to mention a private invitation to my very own discard channel right let's dive in so here we have the rig so far he has all the main controls needed for a rig of this level obviously there are a lot more advanced systems we could add but I want to save them for our next character we have a few problems with this current rig for one we can see all the underlying systems and they are easily selectable which means the rig can be broken also there is no way to move the character as a whole to reposition him in the scene if we select everything in the outliner and move him you can see that everything moves apart you we can try to group them maybe that will fix it but no still the same issue what's more we can't scale them either doing that break simple tip so there are a number of things we need to do before we can even think about passing this on to an animator that's on group lers a good way to quickly test the rig is to go to display show all this will make everything which isn't locked visible something in an animator could do while working so this will expose areas which need to be locked away we can see more of the base systems now stretch joints locators all of this should be miserable you will also notice that two new icons have appeared and these are here on purpose I added these because we are going to use them to help us clean up the rig we have a route control and also a scene direction arrow the arrow doesn't do anything directly it's just a gentle reminder of which way the scene is pointing this is good when you're moving a character around a lot the route control is a main one we will be working with you will also see that I have added a series of attributes onto this already I've covered adding attributes a lot over this series so I'm sure you can handle these yourself these are here to help control the visibility of each area of the rig but we will look more into those later a lot of them are just simple enums this will also act as a main global control for the character used to reposition and scale in press ctrl + G to create a new group rename this to male underscore rig underscore group this will be the main group which holds the character and his rig select everything and drag it into the group just doing this simple step cleans up the outliner nicely what we need to do now is make the character move with the route control all we need to do is move everything under the base controls group so it is instead parented to the route control so move all the main controls basically now if we move the route control we can change the character's position and orientation that was a simple step but we still have a lot more to do what's that ah those are his eyelashes I don't think I ever got around to skinning those oh well I'll hide them for now and try not to get distracted so we can move in and rotating but can you see there's an issue with his head it's facing forwards no matter where the root rotates to if we look at the head control we can see that follow neck which controls whether the head follows the neck or the world orientation is set to zero so the head is in world space let's reset the root when adding the space swapping controls which we did in the previous video we use the locator this one world space position as the main world space object if I rotate it as you can see the head on some other elements moving with it all we need to do is make sure these world space locators also lie under the route control that's better everything moves with the route as it should you move the route control so it's to the base controls group and rename that so it's just called controls create a new group again just press ctrl + G call this do not touch and put it in capitals so it's very clear that everything beneath this shouldn't be touched select the rig systems-based skeleton and male model groups drag these into the new do not touch group rename bass skeleton to just skeleton and male model to geometry that cleans things up nicely the scene is now organized and we can quickly tell what everything is although we should move visual aids out of the rig system group if we don't when we hide the systems later these will hide too finally move the do not touch group into the male rig group nice okay so we can move and rotating but we still can't scale him if you do he ends up looking bloated and his legs and arms Bend so we need to fix that next the problem is that the other elements like the rig systems and the skeleton aren't parented to the route control so are being influenced by its scale we can't parent those to the route control however we need to maintain this hierarchy so we need to get the route control to control their scale and nothing else let's hide rig systems for now so we can see a little clearer go to Windows general editors and open the connection editor select the route control we want to keep these scale values here so we can watch the rig as we make connections this way we will know if they are working or not click reload left to bring the route control into the connection editor if you are seeing all these attributes like me just disable sure non cable now select scale it's pretty clear looking at him that the skeleton needs to be scaled so select the skeleton group and click reload right to bring that into the connection editor - one thing to point out is that each groups pivot must be the same as the route controls so in this instance it's the world route this ensures everything scales in exactly the same way if something doesn't look right check your pivots first ok let's change the display in the right column so we just see the main transforms and select scale there because we had scale values on the route control we could see the skeleton change size this is made him thinner a more in proportion but the arms and legs are still wrong select the rig systems group and click reload right now select scale again we can see this has changed the rig and he looks like he's almost back to normal just like the skeleton we needed the base rig systems to scale to if we wanted we could also try the geometry group and sometimes it's worth experimenting with different groups depending on how your rig is constructed as you can see that does not work the geometry is already being scaled by the joints so adding this extra scale just makes him scale twice as much so let's just disconnect that you okay he looks good overall but we still have this issue with his knees and his elbows this is being caused by the rural joints we added in the previous video which allow his limbs to deform better if you remember we used utility nerds to make sure these joints stayed between the ones around it so in this case the hip and the knee we needed this to make sure they worked alongside the stretchy limbs now the problem we have is we use the length of the thigh to determine the position of the royal joint but when the rig is scaled the length stairs relative so does not change so that is why the joint ends up in the wrong position what we also need to do is factor in the overall scale when calculating the length cause a connection editor and open the node editor bring the tibia and quadricep in but also bring in the graph to so we can see the connections what we need are these to stretch length distance nodes these give us a length of each joint if we select them and graph those we get a much clearer layout so it's easier to work with let's open the left leg royal scale multiply divide nerd so the quadricep stretch length distance node gives us the length of the quadricep Oris thigh this then goes into the multiply divide node which takes the value and multiplies it by not point five essentially splitting it in half this gives us the translation value for the role joint so it's always between the hip and the knee what we also need to do is adding the scale from the root control so this will correct any changes that are added so the roll joints remain in the right place duplicate the leg royal scale multiply divide node open it and rename it to left leg scale offset let's also open the disk I'm also going to select all these nerds and press P to pin them this should stop them all from jumping around this was a tip that a subscriber gave to me so thanks very much for that tip let's check the connections so the quadricep length goes into input 1x so reroute that into the input 1x attribute on the left leg scale offset node okay so the tibia goes into input on Y let's reroute that into the same attribute on the left leg scale offset owed open the outputs connect output x2 input 1x on the left leg royal scale node and output y 2 input on y so we essentially added a multiply divide node in between the distance and the current multiply divide nodes you may notice now that rule of all joints have changed position but they aren't fixed just yet we don't need these any longer so delete them the new ones are down here so let's move them up just move these around so the distance nodes are going into our new multiply divide node but they are using the same values from the original so we need to update those bring the root control into the node editor and remove all these shape notes also open the control we're going to use the scale Y attribute because that's the axis which is going to have more control over the distance nodes to be fair most of the time this rig will be scaled globally so any attribute would work but it just makes sense to use scale y in this instance connect scale Y to input 2x and input 1x so we are now going to be multiplying the length of the joints by the global scale now that's done the legs look wrong again and that's because we are multiplying when we should actually be dividing open the left leg scale offset node in the attribute editor change the operation from multiply to divide the roll joints positions are now fixed because the length of the joint is being divided by the scale I can scale the rig now and the light works we can also still move the leg around and stretch it too okay that's one limb done let's now update the right leg select the Royal joints let's clear the node editor bring those and their network into the node editor and hunt down the stretch length distance nodes select them and graph those to remove the nodes we don't need open these and duplicate the right leg roll scale nerd open this to and rename it to right leg scale let's just check how these are connected so we get them the right way around ah okay so this needs to move down here that's better quadricep length goes into input 1x we can actually reconnect the connections from the unit conversion nerd instead so connect that to input 1x and move the connection from the tibia unit conversion node to input 1 Y now connect output X to input 1x on the right leg royal scale nerd and then output Y to input 1y those are the main connections so bring the root control in next remove the shape nodes again you and open this up just as we did with a left leg connected scale Y to input 2 X and input 2 y finally remember to change the nodes operation from multiply to divide that's the leg stone I'm gonna repeat the process now but this time work on the arms but rather than go through them all again I'm just going to speed up the video it's exactly the same process just using the arm roll joints instead you okay those are done you stretchiness still works - just like the likes we can now reposition the character in the scene and we can scale them these global controls just make things so much easier for the animator okay I'll just reset these thus the global controls done so what's next well if we go to display show all this makes all the rigged systems visible the issue here is that the animator could do this too and we'll probably do it quite frequently as they work this 10 means they are free to select the based systems and could move them or add keyframes onto them which would break the rig it's important that all this is hidden and everything is locked so it can't easily or accidentally be made visible as I mentioned earlier in the video the route control I imported already has a series of attributes added which will help us to organize the rig and its systems these are just basic attributes but feel free to add more if you need them open the connection editor make sure the route control is in the left column also go to left display shown on cable so we can see our custom attributes here we are at the bottom select skeleton now select the skeleton group and load that into the right side select a visibility the skeleton is now hidden annex visibility is only controlled through this attribute nice and easy but it makes a huge difference next select the rig systems attribute load the rig systems group into the right side and select visibility that's the base system safely hidden away we still have some elements in the scene like this locator we have these worlds base position locators the handle locators are controlled with space swapping attributes but we should hide this main locator load that into the connection editor and select a visibility that is now controlled with the rig systems attribute - I can see we have some clusters which we used for the control lines we added I know there are a few of these and they are just called cluster so in the outliner I'm just going to use the filter up here to just find the nodes with cluster in the name so I'm just going to type cluster star that's better and it saves me searching for them I'll just select the cluster handles and load them all into the right side of the connection editor we can then just select all the visibility attributes to hide them there's one left here you I'll just hide the joints for now and the polygon so we can select it okay select the I care handle as this has priority but this needs hiding too let's find it in the outliner here we go we have the leg and the ball I'll load them into the connection editor now and connect the visibility attributes to hide them we have this locator here so let's connect that to we can select that cluster handle now and connect that there's another I care handle here so connect that to hide it let's do the same with the right leg connect these IKEA handles and this one up to the arms next you connect the right eye care handle and the left so we are slowly going around on making sure everything the animator shouldn't touch is connected to the rig systems attribute okay what else okay I'm going to hide the curves so we can see what's left these locators are fine because they use for space swapping there are these though which are used to drive the lips these need to be hidden I'm going to reveal them in the outliner first there they are I'm now going to press up to pick walk of the hierarchy and select the offset groups I will connect the rig systems attribute to the groups visibility instead there's no particular reason for this you could just connect directly to the locate as if you wish okay those are hidden now let's bring back the models and the joints we have the reverse for joints visible select these and find them in the outliner we can see they're parented to the leg I care control but we need to keep that visible let's use the next group down so left bank outer and the same on the opposite side so rights Bank actor load those into the connection later and select the visibility attributes ok done a good test is to just drag over the rig and see what's selectable so we still have the ability to select the models so let's lock those next on the route control I added an enum attribute called export geometry this has three options unlocked wireframe and locked these will control the geometry in the scene so it's either unlocked and selectable locked but you can just see the wireframe or it's locked down completely and not selectable so let's bring the main model into the connection editor and on the left side select export geometry now we aren't going to use the visibility attribute this time because all that will do is control if we can see the model or not go to right display and select show nong khiaw ball look for the draw override group it will likely be greyed out here we go click the plus to open the group all we're going to do is connect export geometry to override display type let's do that for the other models in the scene those are done the problem is the model is still selectable with the model selected open the attribute editor open the display tab and drawing overrides click enable overrides this makes those attributes be connected to active if you look at the display type drop-down box you will see there are three options normal reference and template all we did was connect our attributes to these so unlocked would set this to normal locked sets it to reference and wireframe changes it to template I'll just enable that for the other models so now I can't select the model it's locked as you can see the export geometry attribute is set to locked if I change it to unlocked it frees up the model and wireframe well switches the models so you can just see the wireframe okay we're doing well the RIC systems are locked and hidden away and the models are also locked so can't be moved or edited this just leaves the controls which is all you want the animator to touch there is still more we can do though as we built the rig we added lots of extra groups like this offset group with this one all the main attributes have been locked and hidden away which is great if I check some of the other groups ah yes you see this one is unlocked so in theory the animator could accidentally select this group and move it which would break the rig in this instance if the animator were to animate this group instead of the knee control there wouldn't be any keyframe on the actual control so if the animation need to be copied to a different rig this animation will be lost it sounds like it may never happen but each animator works in their own way so in short it's best to also go through and lock off any groups the good thing is if you've kept on top of your naming conventions you can do this really quickly with some simple mouth open the script editor all the way through this series we made sure any offset groups had underscore offset on the end of their names so we can use Mel to search for and select all these groups for us type select minus R and then specify a name of star underscore offset the - are simply replaces the current selection and the star is a wild-card so it will select everything that has a underscore offset at the end of the name if I run that all the offset groups are now selected so all I need to do is go into the channel box select the attributes right click and go to lock and hide selected we also added a series of groups when we looked at space swapping so those need to be locked to again use the same bit of mount but change offset to space unlock and hide those finally we had some groups which we added underscore GRP to the end select these unlock and hide those too but deselect the main male rib group we need to keep that one open we can now go through and double-check them you yep all locked as a final step go through each of the controls you need to lock and hide any attributes which either don't affect the rig or could break the rig so these are fine we locked the scale attributes as we were working the clavicle controls still have scale attributes so I'm going to lock and hide those it may be that in your rig you need the scale attributes but try to only leave what's usable so the fingers have keyframes on them so they need removing because everything is lot intend away I can now drag over the rig and I'm only selecting the controls so I can now delete these keys confident that I'm only affecting the main controls and nothing else again this is something the animator may want to do if they want to keep everything in at once if you had any systems or groups selectable they would end up with a keyframe on them so the rig would break that's better so continue checking the controls the scale attributes here could be removed but I think we can use them to help inflate parts of the face okay what's next okay so we can look at wiring up some of these attributes open the connection editor again the route control should automatically be in the left hand side at the geometry group too side and connect geometry to visibility I'll just turn off non cable there we go we can now quickly show and hide the models select the head control next reveal it in the outliner and load all the phase control offset groups into the right side of the connection editor now connect the phase controls attribute to each visibility attribute we also added the locators too you can see the visibility after roofs are grayed out here because they are already connected which is fine as we don't want to change them you can now hide the face controls this is good because usually the body is animated first and then the face later so it makes the rig a little easier to work with so there we go 17 videos later you now have a full rig which is ready to be passed on to an animator well done we can double-check everything by going to display show all and seeing what we can see and what we can select you should only be able to select the controls at this stage which is exactly where we are okay well I guess we have come to the end of this part in the series what I hope is that at this stage you know enough about rigging to be able to create your own basic biped rigs don't worry though there is so much more to cover but I wanted to say a huge thank you to you all for following along so far subscribing and supporting me as I created this series so what's next well I want to move into more advanced areas of rigging and to do this I need a new character and you never know I might actually put clothes on this one 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 tell me what future videos you would like to see remember to download the files from my cube brush page so you can follow along with these tutorials 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 uncie GI signing off and i will see you on the next one [Music] you you

Channel: antCGi

Views: 12,505

Keywords: rigging, maya, autodesk, maya3d, rigging in maya, rig, 2019, maya 2019, gamedev, game art, game development, game rig, multiplydivide node, controls, nodes, reverse, space, attributes, locator, node editor, rig scale, finish rig, global, scale, rig size, lock rig, lock, hide

Id: 7omqF0ubMfw

Length: 33min 45sec (2025 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 27 2020