Rigging tasks

What is rigging?
Rigging is basically about building a machine that controls the mesh, the animator would not be able to animate without riggers so it is an important job. It is all done in an 3D application such has Maya and it's all based on building the joints, the skeleton, then adding controllers to control the rig easier and applying it to a mesh.

To parent objects go to Edit, Parent, make sure you have shift selected the child and the parent in this case the two spheres. Now when you move the parent the child should follow, here I have rotated it. This is good when working with arms or legs, the upper arm being the parent and the lower arm/hand being the child of it, allowing you to make realistic movements.

Groups are very useful for cleaning up assets and putting them in their own groups, some parts might need rigging and some might not, and it is important to be organized. Not only that each group has a unique pivot point which can be very helpful when dealing with a assets that should be grouped such as wheels or controllers, most importantly name them appropriately. To move a pivot point press insert on the keyboard, and move it where you want.

Here are five joints that make up a leg and foot, to add them make sure the animation menu is active, go to skeleton and select the joint tool and using the side view click on the viewport to add each one. Joints are also known as bones and make up a character rig, each joint has its own pivot point and can be used to move the character around, an alternative way is to use the attributes editor.

Controllers are very useful because they allow you to move the character or prop without actually touching the asset. To create one go to Create, EP Curve Tool, and make sure linear is enabled by selecting the box next to it to open up its options. Now it is best to use the top viewport when creating this, the scale doesn't have to be perfect you modify it after. Once created and placed it where you want, freeze transformations, delete history and centre pivot and name it appropriately.

Constraints allow you to make certain movements when using a controller for parts of the body, for example the foot controller for the foot. Select the controller you want to use, then select what you want it to control, it can be a group such as the ankle group, when both are selected go to Constrain. Here I enabled point constraints which are for translations, and orient constraint for rotation. Make sure maintain offset is on for both.

Key points you should know are make sure everything is correctly laid out and clear or else you will risk not knowing what a group or joint or controller is for, you should always keep track of everything you create by naming everything. This makes life easier for you and the animator, also delete history fairly often, this can help process speed fast without any crashing and could stop any errors you are having. Remember to freeze transformations on all controllers when in place, this way if one is slightly out of position you can set it back to 0 and you know it's where it should be. And finally make sure the rig is the correct scale to the mesh you have, you don't want to rig an entire character and find out the legs are too tall or the hands are too long.