3D Rigging Systems Wk7: Expressions and Set driven keys

Expressions are a more advanced method of rigging and involve a basic knowledge of scripting, it is generally only used when the desired effect can be accomplished by no other means or for more complicated interactions between controllers and objects.

For this model I will be using an expression to control the front and rear suspension of the car body, I will use a controller and the translation of said controller in the Y axis will drive a rotation in each respective axle in the car. For example the Front suspension controller will rotate around the rear axle to cause the nose of the car to go up and down and vice versa for the rear suspension.

A set driven key is a similar device as an expression but can be used solely for allowing an attribute of one object to influence another. For the car I will be using a Boolean SDK to toggle the visibility of a set of spotlight objects hidden in the headlights of the car using a controller.

3D Rigging Systems Wk4&5: Rigging with Point constraints and controllers

The main difference between orient and point constraints are that orient constraints constrain the rotation of an object where as point constraints constrain the translation of an object. While orient constraints were suitable to objects such as the doors which rotated on an axis other features such as the suspension had to be done using point constraints. The methodology differs little until the time of constraining. Below is an example of the wheel suspension being point constrained.

3D Rigging Systems Wk4&5: Rigging with orient constraints and controllers

When rigging the car we were to make use of constraints and controllers to create moving parts, this was a relatively simple process that involved knowledge and manipulation of groups in the outliner as well as positioning of pivot points.

Below is an example of rigging the car bonnet, it involved creating a Bonnet Control group which housed the mesh of the bonnet, the nurbs curve controller as well as the constraint between the two. The controller was created using the EP Curve tool in maya and applying an animation deformer to create a curved arrow shape indication the intended motion of the part.

After this the pivot point of the group containing the mesh was placed at the tip of the car as this was where the bonnet rotates on the real life car. Next the controller was placed in an appropriate location and an orient cconstraintcreated between the group and the controller.

Other part of the care were rigged using the method, such as the doors, steering, wheel turning and the boot.

3D Rigging Systems Wk3: Pimp my ride

The first step in getting the car ready for rigging is to fix all of the issues with the current model, which among other things includes, broken materials, broken geometry, broken NURBs geometry and flat out missing parts.

This will be an arduous process but it is necessary, I will also take this opportunity to practice good naming conventions within the outliner, making sure that appropriate geometry is grouped and named accordingly. I will not rename ALL of the individual pieces of the mesh however all relevant meshes will be contained within appropriately named groups.

Below is an example of me fixing the headlight geometry which was plain missing on the left side

3D Rigging Systems Wk2: Introduction

3D Rigging systems is a module that I have been looking forward to for some time. While learning the tips and tricks of how to animate a rig are all well and good, the process, or so I believe, would be infinitely easier if we knew out and out how the rig in question worked. The best way to know this is to make the rig ourselves and in this module I hope we can be taught to do this.

The module itself is split into two sections: The first section involves rigging a car, which seems to me to be the simpler of the two considering that a car is more mechanical than a person and has fewer less intricate moving parts, that would be need be rigged at any rate.

The second section will involve rigging a person, which again I believe will be the harder task, especially when talking into account facial rigging and the use of joints.

We have been shown the car which we shall model... and it is in quite a state.