I'm new here and yes I need your help

[Jhonus]

I suggest you read the maya help files on character setup.

[Lyr]

The most basic thing you have to accomplish with your skeleton is making sure that all joints in a chain rotate on the same axis and have clean channels once oriented in the appropriate position. If your joints don't do this you are going to be screwed.

To accomplisg this select the root joint and in the command line type select -hi this will select the hierarchy (might as well add this command to your shelf, a hot key or a marking menu you are going to use it alot) then rotate the hierarchy, then pick walk down the hierarchy and make sure they are all rotating in the same direction. For example if you rotate the hierarchy in -Z make sure all joints have a negative value for rotate Z in the channel box, if they don't you need to adjust thier orientation. Flipping the problematic axis by 180 degrees solves this problem (flip the orientation axis, not the rotate channel). Child joints should not have any values entered for thier translation, or rotation channels, with the exception of translate X. The root of the hierarchy may have values for all three translate channels, but should be 0 for all rotate channels. Once you have all of your joints oriented so they rotate on the proper axis you may have to move them back into position. To do this adjust the orientation values till the joints are positioned in your model as wish them to be.

Hope that makes sense.

[gaiXyn]

yes the help files.....if only they gave more info I wouldn't be here making a fool out of myself....yet there's people like Alex at Gnomon showing you how to do it.....people at A|W telling you how to do it....and books, vids and the like teaching the same thing.....I wonder how I could of missed that....:p.....:D come on man.....we all know how little info the manual gives.....

now Lyr has something I could actually use.....any chance of you going a little futher into this....everything you've said I've gotten......so what about IK arms and legs......how many joints ( on legs and arms ) do you use and why?.....don't mean to be a bother man, but I am a fast learner so you don't have to hold my hands.......

peaCe.....

[Jhonus]

Everything Lyr just said is in those manuals :D

But yes, i know what you mean.... they don't really tell you the why so much... but more the what, where and how. I guess experience gives you the why, which is what you are seeking.

As for IK, i always use the reverse foot setup for the legs. And the rest of the body I usually use FK. (Theres a few tutorials on this on highend3D, and simple a one in Maya help files)

For me the problem area is the arms and whether to use FK or IK.

FK is good for rounded circular actions, running, bowling etc. (Thats in the help file too)

IK is good when your character is interacting with objects... like picking something up, opening a door etc. (Thats also in the help file)

So you need to evaluate what your character will be required to do before deciding on IK or FK. I learnt this the hard way.

If your character does both i would suggest attempting the FK/IK switching thingy. Read help files for more info on that :)

Using IK on the spine can be useful (read help files for info on that). However its not necessary.

Alternatively I've heard of people duplicating their characters and having one setup for IK and the other setup for FK and then switching between the two as required.

Also if your skin deforms badly for a particular action you may to use duplicate characters with different weightings. This also requires evaluating the different poses your character will be put into... so that you can identify.

As for building skeletions and where to put joints and how many... umm read the maya help files LOL :D
Theres also a few other variations on Highend3D.
I don't think theres any hard and fast rule.

Anyway... please don't disregard the help files... there is a shitload of useful information in its 147meg volume.

[mestela]

This might give you a hand:

http://www.animagicnet.no/maya/jointfactory/index.htm

-matt

[Lyr]

For Ik/FK just set it up so you can animate between the two. There are several tutorials online that show you how to do this. There is also a video from A|W that will show you how to do it.

[gaiXyn]

thanks Krugar....I guess I have to go back to that boring help files....but I have a quick question for you guys...is it possible to render out a single animation?....to be clearer....can I render an animation in Maya without it being broken up into every frame?...

thanks....

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