global control rotate glitch

[toRigOrNotToRig]

That looks like it has nothing to do with the skin weights, they merely follow the joints. It looks like rotating your master controller caused the neck joint to flip. Why that is, without looking at your hierarchy or the file I couldn't say. Some possibilities are they inherited a transformation from somewhere up the hierarchy. Or if IK was involved, the IK broke. Or if it was splineIK it was parented to the wrong thing. If you'd like to post your file online somewhere, I can take a look at it, just post here.

[ArtisticDreams]

ok here's the file I've been working with. I would love for you to take a look at it and figure it out. It's not an overly complicated rig, I would like to think, but the problem is probably right in front of me anyway!

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=1RNMVRKL

if you can't get that to work, let me know.

[toRigOrNotToRig]

First of all, the IK's pole vector in the neck is definitely flipping when you rotate your master controller.

If you'll go to ikHandle_Head and change the "offset" to 180 it will fix that. As to why it happened, I'll hazard a guess that you didn't freeze transformations on something or other when you were hooking everything up. I don't know for sure, but that seems likeliest. Now I'm not 100% sure that having that offset be 180 won't screw something else up later, but it seems to be fine for now.

But you have a further problem, and this is that the IK in the arms is doing the same thing, both when you rotate the master controller and also when you switch between IK and FK. It flips out completely, but changing the offset won't fix that. You used an ikRPsolver for the clavicle IK and that is incorrect as far as I know. You use "reverse plane" solvers for the arms and legs, for things with multiple bones down the chain. For things like the clavicle where you have no bones between the root and end bone, you want to use ikSCsolver "single chain" solver. So delete the IK in the clavicle and re-run it using an ikSCsolver.

I hope that fixes it and that it's not something else. If, after you re-run the IK and hook everything back up you are still having the same problem, please let me know and send me the new file and I'll take another look at it, but it's late right now, and I need to go to bed. I hope this helps you.

Some further suggestions for future reference to use when you rig your next character:

1.) Your clavicles are in the wrong place. They should be more forward and at an angle, with the root joint lower than the end joint, starting near the breast bone, and the end joint ending up near the shoulder.

2.) Don't forget to freeze transformations on everything, and to orient all joint chains before running IK. Doing these two simple things can prevent problems like the ones you're having.

3.) I think your rig is odd, the hierarchy is unlike any rig I've ever seen. Of course, I've been working in Max for a few years, so maybe it's a new spiffy one I haven't seen. However, I think that Cheryl Cabrera has a better rig IMHO (I might be biased, I was one of her students LOL), her book "An Essential Introduction to Maya Character Rigging (http://www.amazon.com/Essential-Introduction-Maya-Character-Rigging/dp/0240520823)" is a must read. The rig is animator friendly, and easy to set up. The books is less than $40, buy it, you'll not be sorry.

[ArtisticDreams]

thanks so much, I'll get right to work on it :) and thanks for the tip on the rigging book, I was working through the digital tutors rigging tutorial for this specific file, but I've never seen one like it before either. Thanks again, and I'll post here again if I get it working.

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