Rig it Right!

✍ Scribed by Tina O'Hailey

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2024
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 324
• Edition: 3
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Rig It Right! breaks down rigging so that you can achieve a fundamental understanding of the concept. The author will get you up and rigging with step-by-step tutorials covering multiple animation control types, connection methods, interactive skinning, BlendShapes, edgeloops, and joint placement, to name a few. The concept of a biped is explored as a human compared to a bird character allowing you to see that a biped is a biped and how to problem solve for the limbs at hand. Rig It Right! will take you to a more advanced level where you will learn how to create stretchy rigs with invisible control systems and use that to create your own types of rigs.

This highly anticipated Third Edition features updated chapters and images, including new chapters on modeling with proper edgeloop (Rule #1!), how to Rig It Right then Rig it Fast with parallel processing, and new helpful scripts for evaluating your rig with the profiler tools.

Key Features

• Hone your skills every step of the way with short tutorials and editable rigs that accompany each chapter (17+ rigs!!)
• Read "Tina’s 10 Rules of Rigging" and build the foundational knowledge needed to successfully rig your characters
• New content: Edgeloops for Good Deformation and Rigging for a Parallel World
• New scripts for evaluating your rigs’ performance
• Access the Support Materials and expand your newfound knowledge with editable rigs, exercises, and videos that elaborate on techniques covered in the book

✦ Table of Contents

Cover
Half Title
Title Page
Copyright Page
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Basic Rules of Rigging
Taking Control of Your Outliner/Node Editor/History
Introduction to Nodes
How to Find the Transform and Shape Nodes
Looking Under the Hood
PART I: BASIC CONCEPTS
Chapter 1: Props, Pivot Points, and Hierarchies
Zeroing Out
Using Group Nodes to Hold Animation
Making Children
Lock What Isn’t Going to Be Animated
What to Do If You Have Hidden Attributes and Want Them Back
Pushing the Concept
Chapter 2: Deformers
Nonlinear Deformers
Super Toothbrush
Appendix 2.A: Edgeloops for Good Deformation
Note
Chapter 3: User Controllers
One-to-One Controllers
Connection Editor
To Limit the Controllers
Adding More Animator’s Controllers
A New Type of Connection: Constraint Connections for Translate, Scale, and Rotate
Clean-Up Time
Adding Scale to Our Rig
Chapter 4: Utility Nodes and Custom Attributes
Where Else Could You Use This?
The Problem with One-to-One Connections
Utility and Low-/High-Resolution Switch
How Do We Create a Custom Attribute on an Existing Controller?
What Could Go Wrong?
Enum
One Odd Thing to Note about the Polysmooth Node
“One-to-Many” Connections
Chapter 5: Joints
Joints Are Tricky Things
Orient Joints
Character with a Skeleton: Googly-Eyed Puppet
Check Your Joint Rotational Axis
Creating the Right Arm the Easy Way
Simple Inverse Kinematic Arm
Waist Control
Main Move for the Character
Interactive Skinning
Them Eyes
Cleaning Up
Scale
Jaw Controller
Head Controller
Chapter 6: Blendshapes and Set Driven Key
Hooking a Controller up to a Blendshape
Blendshape Weights
Adding Controllers
Set Driven Key
Set Driven Key to Do Automatic Corrective Blendshapes
Set Driven Key to Drive a Forward Kinematic Tentacle
More Advanced Controller Setup
Extra Effort
Note
PART II: THE BIPED
Chapter 7: The Biped
The Leg
The Spine
Joint Orientations
The Arms/Wings
Orient Joints
Hands/Feathers
Clavicle
Mirror Wings
That Bone’s Connected to the Other Bone
Helper Joints
Finishing Up
Chapter 8: Skinning
Pipeline 1: Creating Proxies Manually, Then Skinning the Low-Res Geometry
Skinning
Skinning the Bird
Painting Skin Weights
Mirror Skin Weights
Creating Proxies
Joint Adjustment
Chapter 9: Upper Body, Lower Body, and Root: Always Have a Cha-Cha
Upper_Body_CNTRL and Lower_Body_CNTRL
Root_CNTRL
CNTRL Hierarchy
Chapter 10: Feet and Knees: Simple, Group-Based, and Joint-Based Feet
Peel Heel
Toe Tap
Tippy Toe
Main Foot Movement
Locking Them Down, Boss
Adding Controls for the Animator
The Knee
Cleaning Up
Chapter 11: Spines: FK, Spline and SDK (Set Driven Key)
FK Spine
Set Driven Key Spine
Spline Spine
Chapter 12: Arms, Elbows, and Clavicles: Single Chain, Triple Chain with Wrist Twist (SDK or Cluster)
Functionality
IK/FK Switching Methods
Not All Arms Are Created Equal
Down to Rigging That Arm: The Abstracted Steps
Single Chain Method
Chapter 13: Hands: SDK, SDK and Keyable CNTRLs
A Simple Set Driven Key
To Clean Up That Rig
Chapter 14: Eyes, Blinks, and Smiles
Joints
Groups
Fancy-Smooshy Eyes
Where to Put the Look at Controller?
Blendshapes and Referenced Files
Back to Blendshapes
What about the New Shape Editor Window?
Blinks
Chapter 15: Master CNTRL and Scalable Rigs
Main_CNTRL to Move and Rotate the Whole Character
Main_CNTRL to Scale the Whole Character
Scale Unskinned Geometry (Eyes, etc.)
Problem Solving
Bulletproofing
Animating the Rig
The End of the Beginning
PART III: ADVANCED TOPICS
Chapter 16: OMG-Gimbal Lock
What Is Rotational Order?
What Does It Look Like When You Lose an Axis of Freedom?
What Rig Is More than Likely Going to Hit Gimbal Lock?
What Can We Do to Avoid Gimbal Lock?
What Does It Look Like When You Have Flipping Issues?
What Can We Do to Avoid Flipping Issues That Are Animation Issues?
What Can We Do to Avoid Flipping Issues That Are Rigging Issues?
Chapter 17: Advanced Controls
Control Systems and How They Are Hooked Up
Control Systems and How They Are Represented Visually
Transform to Component Set Driven Key
Transform with Multiple Shape Nodes
Hidden Proxies as Controllers
Controllers Driving Other Controllers
Step 1: Create the Secret Name
Step 2: Create the Listener
Step 3: Create the ScriptNode with the Actual Code
GUI Control Systems
MEL Windows: A Simple Example
Chapter 18: Stretchy
Stretchy Skin
Clusters
Joint Balls Driven by a Joint System
Lattice Skinned to Skeleton
Stretchy Skeletons
What about IK Chains?
Auto Blendshapes to Make Pleasing Silhouettes
The Pose Editor
All of the Above (Osipa)
Chapter 19: Broken Rigs and Dangly Bits
Breakable Rigs (Independently Movable Skeletal Sections)
Detachable Parts
Chapter 20: Rigging for a Parallel World
What Is Parallel Threading?
What Are We Looking at?
What Do We Look for?
Epilogue
Index