Rigging a treasure chest in Maya

#1

Hey everyone,

I’m currently working on a project for my animation course, and I’m creating a character as a treasure chest with legs and arms. I also require this treasure chest to have the ability to open and close its lid.

I’m at the rigging stage near enough and wanted to test how I could go about rigging it. The skeleton is a pretty simple bi-ped but how would I implement the function of being able to open and close the lid.

Hopefully you understand what I mean and can give me some kind of guidance.

I have looked all over the web for a solution as i thought it would be pretty simple in the design phase.

By the way I’m working in Maya

Thanks, Dan

#2

If you are confused abut what I mean, I know I can change the pivot point of the lid and parent the lid to the main body. Then when I start to rig the skeleton, the lid doesn’t follow the body, it just stays in the same position.

Is there a way I can get the lid to move with the body, and still freely rotate on a pivot? When I try to bind the lid to the skeleton as well, parts of the mesh appear to be sticking to the lid when I’m trying to open it.

Is this a skin weights problem or is there another way around this?

Thanks, Dan

#3

Hi Dan,

Have you tried using a set driven key?

#4

Thanks for your reply, but I’m kind of new to the rigging game. What exactly is a set driven key and how does it work?

I will look for some tutorials on this so I can understand it more.

Would the lid still stick with the chest if i set driven key on the rotate of the lid and made it a wrap deformer?

Set driven key may work in your theory but problem is my lid doesn’t parent with the main body when it is moved by the controls of the rig

#5

HI Dan,

Set Driven Key is a kind of connection based upon a Driver and Driven object using the power of Maya Animation Keys/Curve. Check out this tutorial : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0XGrhKSkjI

#6

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