Embedded Files
Resources used for rigging
Resources used for rigging
Tutorial video by Joshua Jones on YouTube. Will be following this tutorial when I am rigging my character!
Downloaded the AdvancedSkeleton5
Extracted the contents into the Maya2020 Scripts folder
Created a new shelf in Maya, and named it "Advanced Skeleton" then I used the install file and dragged it into the shelf.
Docked to the left side of Maya
Missing icons and assets
At first it seems I managed to mess up the extraction (even though I've extracted hundreds of files in my time) and the icons and several options did not seem to appear correctly in Maya. I was missing things everywhere. When I got to the "Body -> Fit" part, I couldn't import the biped skeleton to my model.
So I deleted the folder from the scrips, deleted the shelf and I started over. I have icons now! At the very least I didn't lose or mess up anything as I saved as soon as I had done the first part where you clean up your Outliner.
re-installation
re-installation
Success! I simply just deleted the old files/shelf and re-extracted the .zip, and somehow it just started working this time.
My first try at rigging was very awkward in the way that my model was way too large for the rig itself - so you can see in the video i fumble about trying to "look for a way to fix it". I eventually get told that scaling the rig itself will cause issues and that I decide to try and resize the model itself to fit the rig so I can just move it around instead.
With the first rig testing there was a lot of awkward deformation with the shoes/legs and a tiny bit with the shirt. The hair is deforming as well because it doesn't have a joint so that just makes sense, not worried about that part. But with how the heel bends like shown below it tells me that I need to move the join in her foot to maybe further down and put the ankle maybe closer to the heel.
animation testing
animation testing
For us to get an idea of how the character's joints will move when animated - we can use the AdvancedSkeleton script to run an animation tester. It will run through all the joints and test their movements and we can see it as it runs through it. By default it is set to "Play All Frames" but I had it set to "24fps x 1", for it to go through it much smoother and easier for me to follow along for any weird distortion.
updated rig - changed hip and feet
updated rig - changed hip and feet
When testing the animation I felt that there was maybe a couple of things I could change to maybe make it work a little bit better than it is right now. So I went back to the rig and moved the hip down a little bit, as well as move the knee since I noticed it had been moved somehow. I saw in the YouTube tutorial that it had happened to him as well, so I am assuming it is just a bug that happens.
Doing the animation test on the "new" rig so that I can see what deforms, it looks better in my opinion and I will be going with this!
Third Rig update - I didn't like how the elbow/shoulder was moving as in my sculpting I should've made the arms a bit longer, but I just changed the joint to be further away from the shoulder so hopefully it will bend better!
Increased the sizes of some of the controls by selecting the "Control vertices" and scaled them up so they are easier to click on.
Female Run Animation Test
Cute Walk Animation Test
A new "Female Run" test with the updated Rig
"Cute Walk" animation test 02
In the new walk animation test the legs feel much smoother when she's walking as I changed where the knee joint was, as well as lowering the joints for the feet to be more closer to the ground. She still looks a bit hunched back but overall I am really happy with this.
image renders
image renders
Using the provided "Arnold Lighting Scene" for Maya, downloaded on a shared OneDrive folder - there is already lights set up for a nice bright looking scene where the floor isn't shown. Below are additional settings for our "Render Scene" for it to render out a smaller size picture as well as the "Camera Settings". These settings can always be changed but I liked how it looked so I went with them!
Setup
Changed the camera settings to what is shown above
The Render Settings
I had issues when it came to scaling up my model in the lighting scene. It would completely blow up my model so for now I created some poses with the model still being really small. Will look into fixing it later!
"Cool" Pose
Cute Stance
Kneeling Down
Thinking
Skipping/Jog ?
After rendering out some images I decided I had to look into why I cannot scale my character properly. Now in the end I only have a theory as to what happened, but I took a backup file where I had to adjust the rig a little bit, re-built the advanced skeleton, and when I had published that version I tried to scale my character again - and it worked!
My assumption is that something happened with the outliner - and it could've been something I misclicked or something else, but this version has a much more cleaner outline and looks so different to the other one so I am 99% sure that was the issue.
Now I just need to re-apply the textures and make sure they're automatically applied when opening the file.. then more rendered poses!
Got the textures applied, rig works properly and she's around 170cm ! I scaled her to 170cm since I am around that height so it was easier to just make it similar to mine. Now to just make some poses and render out more images.
Camera settings aren't final as they defaulted and I almost forgot to re-set them - here is a wide view camera setting but before I render out images I will put it back to the settings shown earlier.
Animation Tests with the updated rig and correct character scale
Character looks a bit hunched over whilst walking. This could be due to the skeleton/joint placements not being quite right for the chest/neck area. Although changed multiple times it seems the same outcomes from earlier videos to these newer ones when it comes to that particular area.
Cute Pose
Shy or Sad ?
Longing
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