Rigginh the spine in Maya

[kevinstiles]

There are, of course, many different methods you can use to create spinal movement. Many people use spline IK on the spine, some of the first rigs I created have this feature. I find IK problematic so try to use it as little as possible. However, if you are new to rigging it is quick and easy. So you could run a spline through your spine and be on your way. You could also use set driven keys to simulate all the motions a spine might possibly make. You could pull out the joint selection handles and animate those. You can use the connection editor to link your joints to polies or nurbs and animate by moving the polies or nurbs. You could even use text and make the polies into words describing each joint so you don't get confused. You could use the expressions editor which is probably what you are looking for. Unfortunately, I know nothing about expressions, or sripting, or mel. So I can't tell you how to make a fancy set up using expressions. There are several other ways to set up the rig I know one guy who uses the Hypershade to rig.

As far as being able to move the character all at once create a nurb curve select your root joint(the joint to which all other joints or eventually parented) then shift select the curve and press p. Then you can move the entire character by translating the curve. I hope this helps. I'll try to keep an eye on this post so if you need more or different direction I should catch it.

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