Rigging ulna and radius

#1

Hi everyone.
I’m trying to rig the ulna and radius bones in 3ds Max to simulate how they move in real life. Like in this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsjFkk6Nuzo
Basically the position of both bones is fixed towards the humerus but not the rotation (the ulna is not supposed to rotate but I can live with it rotating :slight_smile: ), and they seem to be linked to something (a helper most likely) at the other end.
Some guys suggested that I skin the two bones mesh to a single bone in a bone system, that way I have the illusion that it’s working, but that’s not what I’m after. I have to admit that rigging is not my strongest specialty but I have to do this one.

Any suggestions?

#2

Well crucially you rotate around the ulna, with both basically being a look-at controller to wrist.

As to skinning a mesh to that, we’ll id assume you have some sort of muscle system under the skin.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhZ9ZX-Ht24&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PL933680E7A18A296C

#3

That makes sense. I’ll try the look at controller and get back with the result.
Oh, and the video is very useful also. Thank you :thumbsup:

#4

Here´s some stuff I did several years ago for a medical company. You can fade the muscles in and out with mouse over buttons inside the animation to give you some sort of overview what exactly is happening under the surface:

http://flexikon.doccheck.com/Supination
http://flexikon.doccheck.com/Pronation

And considering the muscles wrapped around the bones, in my case they tended to crash through the ulnar and radius, so create some sort of underlying deflection object (just my 2 cent here ;))

Have fun

Chris

BTW: Cheers for your video, eek. I could have done with something like that. Instead I had to chew myself through medical professional handbooks. Those were the days :D.

#5

The look at controller is working for me so far. There are some issues that I have to wrap my head around but it seems this is the way to do it.

Yes, dunkelzahn, this penetrating and crashing issue seems to be an inevitable problem when doing muscle anatomy. I’ve been correcting this with skin morph so far. A deflector seems to be a consistent and more reliable option (more rigging study for me :slight_smile: ). Thanks for the tip and for sharing your work.

#6

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