3D Toolkit: Rigging the Spine

When creating the Spine rig, it is made separate from the legs and joined after creation. This is because the motions that the rig can perform are largely separate from the motions of the leg. The rigs can be connected later.
When creating the rig, I placed the scene in the orthographic side view. This is because that, when I place the joints in this view, they will be in the centre of the scene and as such aligned to the pelvis of the legs. I placed a locator at the tip of the head as a guide for where the head would sit, and placed in several joints to represent the spine. Two of these were in the lower spine, one was for the chest and one was for the base of the neck. This disposition means that the majority of the movement occurs in the lumbar region of the body, which is accurate to human form. 


With these joitns created, I made a Nurbs circle and placed this at the pelvis, with its history deleted and transformations then frozen. I placed the pivot of this circle in the lowest lumbar joint, and duplicated it for the other joints: as such, every joint then had a nurbs circle with its pivot set within it. 



With this done, the circles can be parented to make one influence the other: click the to circle, then the one under it, and press "P" to parent them together. This can be repeated for all circles to create a congruent bending motion when one controller is moved. 


The head is a separate joint chain from the spine. It is comprised of the neck, head and jaw. A similar process is followed in creating the joints: two are set above the spine's lower neck and one at the head. The upper neck joint is then parented to the lower neck joint, which connects them together.
For a controller, a CV curve can be created with its pivot moved to the lowest head-neck joint. This is then duplicated to the upper neck joint and parented in the same manner as the spine controllers. 

For the jaw, two joints are created, one representing the mandible and one representing the chin. The upper joint is parented to the head. An attribute is then created for the lower jaw, connected to the jaw's z rotation axis. When this attribute is altered, the jaw moves.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Industry Practice: Case Study - the art style of Don't Starve

Image
Art Style Case Study: Don't Starve Don't Starve (Klei Entertainment 2013) and Don't Starve Together (Klei Entertainment 2016) are survival games in which players command thoroughly unprepared explorers stranded in the wilderness. Over the course of in-game seasons, players gather equipment, craft items and armour, grow crops and explore the world to combat dangerous monsters and find resources in hazardous biomes. With somewhat surreal and fantastical theming, many of the monstrous creatures in the Don't Starve games are chimaeras of a sort, mixtures of two or more creatures that create unique combinations that represent specific themes or seasons in the game. For example, the "Bearger" enemy is a mixture of a Badger and a Bear, with a hulking humanoid form, bear-like claws and a badger's head. This unique combination of animals is used in Don't Starve to represent the season of autumn, with badgers and bears both being animals representative of the...
Read more

ZBrush: Transpose, Masks and Subtools

Image
Transpose  Allows for the repositioning and moving of models within ZBrush. This allows for movement, scaling and rotation. When the Transpose tool is activated, a pivot appears in the model you are moving. Thic contains arrows, axis rings and block shapes. Pulling on the arrows of the Transpose tool moves a model. Axis rings allow for rotation and the block shapes allow for scaling. These are all measured on the X, Y and Z axis.  There are also a number of options that allow for the Transpose tool to be customised. The Lock  Gear: Allows access to deformers. Pin: Pins the pivot to its current location. Locator : Centres pivot to unmasked areas of the model.  Home: Centres the pivot on the model. Circle Arrow: Reset rotation of pivot Lock: Unlocks the pivot, allowing for the pivot to be moved independent of the model. This allows for the centre of rotation to be changed,  Checkbox: Transpose multiple models at once. Masks Masks allow for areas of a ZBrush ...
Read more

3d toolkit: Zmodeler and Extract

Image
Zmodeler: Zmodeler is a brush/tool that allows for 3D modelling techniques, such as extruding and beveling, to be used atop a Zbrush Sculpt. This operates similarly to Autodesk Maya, with edges and faces able to be selected and manipulated using a variety of settings. To demonstrate the Zmodeler tool, I loaded up the default Cube project. I then, using the "Geometry" setting in the Tool menu at the right side, changed the Subdivisions of the cube to 2. This removed much of the geometry of the cube. I then used "Delete Higher" and "Delete Lower" to lock the cube into its two-subdivision state, removing any erroneous geometry. I then turned on the " Line Fill " setting, which is activated by pressing SHIFT+F . This shows the geometry of the cube, illustrating all faces and edges. The shortcut for Zmodeler is B , Z , M . The Zmodeler functionality operates similarly to a brush. Holding Alt allows you to select faces. Shown below, I held down the Alt...
Read more