Auto Rig Plug-in for an Ice Creature:
​Capabilities of the rig:
-
Spine and neck system with twist attributes.
-
Global control to translate, rotate and scale the entire rig.
-
Main control to set the model and joints accessibility to reference, template and normal.
-
Spline IK tail rig.
-
IK based leg system with twist attributes built-in.
-
ball swivel and ball control with individual IK systems set up for movement of claws.
-
A wrap deformer built-in to integrate a hi-res mesh.
​
Requirements from the rigging Artist:
-
A skeleton that has
-
Joints named as specified.
-
A cubic cv curve for neck, spine and tail.
-
Pole vectors for the legs to set up IK handles with twist attributes.
-
A low-res and high-res mesh of the same model.
-
A skin-weight file.
Dynamic Tail Rig Tool:
It has two systems with two different joint chains built in it:
-
FK system - that allows the animator to control the orientation and pose the tail at his/her will.
-
A dynamic system - which animates the tail automatically based on the animation of the hip.
FK System:
-
A set of joints parent constrained by a set of controls in a which are organized in a hierarchy.
Dynamic system:
-
This system consists of an IK spline chain controlled by a curve which is made dynamic.
-
A few parameters of the hair system such as drag, dampness, and gravity are changed to match the movement of the type of tail.
-
Attributes like Point lock and Damp for the follicle system are changed to mimic the actual movement of the tail.
-
To give the ability to the user to modify these parameters they have been implemented into the tool as well.
​​
The UI:
-
Start point - gives a locator that allows you to set the start point of the tail.
-
Endpoint - gives a locator to set the end point of the tail.
-
Smooth slider - allows you to set the number of joints you want in your tail to move.
-
Create Rig button - Creates the rig for you with two systems.
-
Set follicle and Set curve - Allows the user to set the follicle and curve system based on which the tail moves.
-
Load button - to load the parameters of the dynamic system so that user can specify the way he/she wants the tail to move.
-
Gravity - set the gravitational pull of the tail according to the user’s requirements.
FK/IK Switcher Tool:
I have Written a tool which creates an FK/IK switch for a Bi-ped Rig with a simple UI using Python in Maya.
This tool when used in a Bi-ped Rig creates a control system for the rig and using the UI you can select between FK and IK to move the joints in respective systems.