Key the bindPose at frame At the same time create a keyAll MEL button
Keyframe the bindPose so you have a reference starting position for your model. At the same time, echo your key commands so that you can make a simple MEL button that'll key everything at once. In the Script Editor, turn on Echo All Commands. Select the fullTrans node and set a keyframe for all attributes by Animate gt Key, or default hotkey s. Highlight the setKeyFrame command in the History section of the Script Editor and MMB drag them into Input section of the Script Editor. Select the next...
Shoulder Controls
Control the shoulder and the collar under one node. 1. Add the left_collar attributes to the left_FKshoulder. Use the pictures below as reference. Select the left_Fkshoulder, and Modify gt Add Attribute. Add the following attributes, all of Data Type - Float. leftCollarUpDown min -10, max 10, default 0. Rotate the collar joint in the Front View from down to up. leftCollarForwardBack min -10, max 10, default 0. Rotate the collar joint in the Top leftCollarRotate min -10, max 10, default 0....
Mel Scripting Character Gui
Fig. Note 2.1 This is the simple character GUI that I use for my characters when animating. Notice that it's broken down into sections that can be collapsed to take up the least amount of screen space as possible. paul paraform.com pthuriot hotmail.com NOTE this GUI will only work if you use the joint handle names specified out for the character setup for maya 2.5 tutorial by paul thuriot. window -t Lyssa Character GUI -widthHeight 200 150 scrollLayout scrollLayout columnLayout...
Animate Set Driven Key Set options to open up the Set Driven Key Window
Load the driver of the set driven, the node with the controlling attribute. Select it and hit the Load Driver button in the Set Driven Key Window. In this case, select the ROOT node and load it as the driver. Then select the attribute of the driver node that you want to set a key for in the right side of the window you can only highlight one at a time . For this, select the lumbarForwardBack attribute. Make sure that the attribute is at the correct value for what you are about to set a key for...
Select the polySurface and Skin Edit Smooth Skin Paint Skin Weights Tool Options
In the window view, turn on Smooth Shading All or hit the number key 5 . This will turn the display to a grayscale representation of the weights of the poly surface, black for zero and white for one. In the Paint Skin Weights Tool options window, go down to the Influence section under the Skin Paint tab. Find the left_elbow and highlight it. Edit the surface deformations by painting directly on the mesh using the following functions
Create the set drivens for the wrap nodes per resolution
This will help free up machine memory when calculating the wrap by just calculating the wraps per resolution. There are a couple ways of doing this step, I'll just go through this one .it's a little long and maybe confusing, but less so than others. Highlight all the layers in the Layer Editor and turn them all Invisible. This should hide everything in the scene. Highlight, and make Visible, the loRez layer. Select a patch of your character. It doesn't matter which one, the wrap deformer is...
Facial Blend Shapes
If your character has any blend shapes facial or otherwise , apply them BEFORE you apply the wrap deformer to your character. This character only has blend shapes for the face, but you'll get the idea of how to apply them to everything else if you want i.e. for corrective deformations and the like . The one thing that you'll notice is that there is only one set of blend shapes for three different model resolutions. We'll actually setup this character so that the hiRez blend shapes drive all...
Attach the arm to the torso
Instead of attaching the shoulder joint directly to the spine, insert a clavicle joint for a more naturalistic shoulder control. Place and name the left_clavicle as in images. Look at your own shoulder rotation, the clavicle bone is actually in front of the rib cage, so it's driven from a point closer to the front. Translate the joint to this point. In the front view, select the left_humerus joint, SHIFT select the left_clavicle, and Edit gt Parent or hotkey p . Select the left_clavicle joint,...
Create the left hand
The easiest way to create the hand is to start by making skeleton chains for each finger and ultimately parenting them to the wrist. Draw the five-finger thumb chains in the front view as in the picture below. Edit all the newly created joints locations by translating, rotating, and scaling the joints so that they are located in the center of their surrounding surface areas. If your character's fingers aren't straight, this task can take awhile and you'll have to constantly jump between...
Fig Note 1
If your character's fingers weren't created straight, aligning the joints with the surface could be tedious. Just take your time and switch between views often to line things up. Name each of the chains down their hierarchy THUMB thumbPalm, thumbl, thumb2, thumb3. INDEX FINGER indexl, index2, index3, index4. MIDDLE FINGER middlel, middle2, middle3, middle4. RINGFINGER ringl, ring2, ring3, ring4. PINKY FINGER pinkyPalml, pinkyPalm2, pinkyl, pinky2, pinky3, pinky4. Select the indexl. SHIFT select...