The Complete Bipedal Rigging for Games in Maya Course

Name: The Complete Bipedal Rigging for Games in Maya Course
Rating: 4.6 (256 reviews)

Learn the complete rigging and skinning process for bipeds using Maya with a focus on game characters!

Created by3dmotive LLC

Last updated 4/2017

English

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What you'll learn

Learn the ins and outs of rigging a bipedal character - from absolute beginning to end
Learn to build a rig, a skeleton, and controllers for your rig from the ground up
Completely rig and skin a character to get it ready for animation

Course content

2 sections • 29 lectures • 6h 7m total length

Download Course Files Here!0:06
Intro, Parenting and Scene Management17:12
Source files for Volume 1
Joint Creation10:45
Create and organize joints in Maya using the joint tool and insert point tool to build hierarchical chains, insert joints, and adjust joint radii for rigid or smooth binding.
Joint Orientation and Mirroring8:59
Learn how to set and refine joint orientation in Maya using the orient joint tool to align the local rotation axes toward child joints, and mirroring skeletons for symmetrical rigs.
Control Handles and Set Driven Keys17:10
Skinning18:17
Learn how to skin characters in Maya using smooth and rigid binds, paint weights, and influence troubleshooting to achieve natural deformation.
Building the Skeleton 0117:47
Create the skeleton for a demon in Maya, place and orient joints from spine to jaw, and plan planar IK for arms and legs with clavicle, humerus, forearm, and wrist.
Building the Skeleton 0218:18
Build a complete bipedal rig in Maya by creating and orienting hand and leg joints, aligning axes for natural curling, and wiring the skeleton to a root with mirror-ready symmetry.
Joint Orientation15:53
Display local rotation axes for all joints, freeze transformations, orient joints to the world for consistent primary and secondary axes, and manually tweak key joints to ensure correct finger bending.
Finish Orientation and Naming16:18
Aligns and tests joint orientations across fingers, hips, and legs, fixes local rotation axes, and establishes a naming convention to keep the biped rig organized in Maya.
Building the IKFK Joints17:34
Build and orient a complete arm and leg joint chain for an IK/FK switching rig in Maya, including creating, naming, and mirroring FK and IK joints for animator-friendly control.
Control Handles 0117:34
Create and place NURBS control handles with custom attributes to provide IK and FK control across the hips, spine, jaw, and limbs, enabling faster, more precise animation.
Control Handles 0215:33
Control Handles 0314:01

Introduction1:00
Source files for Volume 2
Setting up the IK17:06
Hooking up the Control Handles9:50
Constrain the control handles to joints using orient and parent constraints, set up ik/fk blending, and preserve local rotation axes by creating empty groups and freezing transforms.
IKFK Switching14:46
Foot Controls 019:47
IKFK Leg Switching Setup10:54
Set up IKFK leg switching in maya by applying orient constraints along the femur to toe, then blend IK and FK with set driven keys and a leg control.
Painting Weights 0113:02
Painting Weights 0213:01
Painting Weights 0314:39
Paint and refine skin weights in Maya to control joint influences on facial and hand deformation, test with rotations, and mirror weights for efficient rigging.
Foot Controls 0216:18
Set up the reverse foot and finger controls with set driven keys on the IK handle after binding the skeleton and painting weights.
Finger Control Setup 019:34
Build a Maya hand control rig by adding attributes to drive finger curl and spread, organize with blank non-cable fields, and load joints to rotate and set min/max values.
Finger Control Setup 0210:51
Set up finger and thumb controls in Maya with curl attributes, joints, and driven keys, enabling precise hand poses and efficient animator workflows for left and right hands.
Cleaning the Rig, and Conclusion6:36
Clean the rig by locking and hiding unused attributes on control handles, streamline ik/fk controls, and set up a master demon control with a group for easy placement.
Bonus - Dynamic Hair Driven Joints14:48
Drive a joint chain in Maya with a dynamic hair curve via an ik spline handle to achieve believable overlapping motion, test with interactive playback, and fine-tune stiffness and gravity.
Bonus Lecture: Further Learning with 3dmotive0:18

Requirements

Autodesk Maya - Download your free trial copy here - www.autodesk.com/products/autodesk-maya/free-trial

Description

In the Bipedal Rigging Series, we take a thorough look at the complete process of rigging, creating bones, skinning, and painting weights of a character from start to finish in Maya. Even if you’ve never rigged a box before, this tutorial breaks down a complex process in an amazingly thorough – and easy to understand way.

Included in this course is a copy of the character - both before and after - so that you can follow along, or compare your rig with the instructor.

About the Instructor:

Justin Harrison is a Character and Technical Animator with more than 7 years experience in the game development industry. Currently, he is working for Molten Games in Del Mar, CA on an unannounced title. Previously he has worked for for both Activision and Sony on titles such as The Bourne Conspiracy, Ghostbusters: The Game, as well as Transformers: War for Cybertron to name a few. Justin holds a BFA in Digital Art and Animation from the College for Creative Studies, and has a generalist skill set that ranges from artistic modeling and asset creation, to motion capture and keyframe animation, to technical rigging and character setup.

Who this course is for:

Absolute noobs to rigging or skinning in Maya
Beginners to animation or character modeling

The Complete Bipedal Rigging for Games in Maya Course

What you'll learn

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Course content

Introduction to Building the Skeleton and Controllers14 lectures • 3hr 25min

Painting Weights, Setting up the IK, and Finer Controls15 lectures • 2hr 43min

Requirements

Description

Who this course is for: