foot rigging - inverse foot setup PLUS

[jabbermacy]

Very nice resource!! Thanks!!

[PEN]

Although this rig works I think you are starting to over complicate it. Using lookAt constraints is adding over head to the rig that isn't nessesary and creates a situation where you are translating the controls to create rotations in the bones. This means that you will now have two Fcurves instead of one for a simple one axis rotation. This will make it more difficult to handle durring animation. You main pivot is also in a bit of a strange place being below the foot. You should have it at a natural pivot poin either at the ankle or at the ball of the foot.

Just my 2 cents worth. Great work and thanks for sharing your knowledge with others.

[victor throe]

ah, i see it the other way round

you still only really have one curve to play with and thats the position of the point helper.

is the over head that much? i know very little about what goes on behind the scenes..

and the 'main pivot' you refer to is not a pivot. this dummy is placed below the foot for easy selection and and positioning. the rotational controls for the foot are determined by the points. (i wish 3dsmax had selection handles like in MAYA - when will they implement this essential feature dammit)

the purpose of this rig was to try and create something that was intuitive to use for animators new to computers. traditional animators coming to CG instinctively want to position things like they would in the real world and half their battle with the medium is taken up by the trivials of switching between move and rotate ETC.

have you had a play with my ultimate foot rig?

PEN: what rigs do you favour?

thats my thinking anyway. its good to get this feedback. i want to create a bunch of files and tutorials with a variety of methods so that new CG artists have a choice.

i have been working with and teaching newcomers to CG for years and one of the biggest hurdles is having a skeleton thats intuitive enough for them to just get down to animating.

[PEN]

What rigs do i favor...well my own of course:S

I have a series of DVD's out at http://cg-academy.net that has the methods that I use on it. Well some of the methods anyway as I change it up depending on what the animators want. I don't rig characters for me. I rig them for the animators first and then add what I need to make my job easier. I don't get the time to animate much anymore:(

I think I was looking at your ultimate rig, it was on your site.

You can create your own selection handles in Max by adding an edit mesh mod and attaching a sphere or some other object to the control and positioning it where it is neeed. In the case of helpers use a point helper and move the point to where it is needed and leave the pivot where it needs to be. I use splines for all my controls so that you can filter for them and I can make them any shape that is needed. You can also writen your own filters for selections.

[victor throe]

thanks for your input. its nice to have feedback from someone like yourself.

the dvds on that site look great. and cheap too. ill be purchasing real soon

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