Easy Character Setup in Maya <big><b>Introduction</big></b><br><br>Most of the recent information on setting up a character (or «rigging« as it«s often referred to) in a high-end 3D software package tends to be somewhat verbose and quite complicated. They are written this way intentionally to show the wide range of tools and tricks they have to offer, many of which can be useful. However, only a few basic steps are absolutely necessary. <br><br>In this tutorial we will go over a relatively fast and easy way of creating a biped character Smooth Skinned and weighted with Joints (or bones) and some IK (explained later). This method is designed to get you through the rigging process and on to animating with a fully functional character as fast as possible. We will be using a very simple character model, one of basic primitive shapes to get right down to it, and not worry about your computer taking too long to update a complicated mesh in your view panel. <br><br><!-- streaming movie embed tags --><embed width="600" height="420" border="0" controller="false"href="http://gizmatron.mesmer.com/Movies/tutorials/Demo3.mov" target="myself"src="http://gizmatron.mesmer.com/Movies/clickhere.mov" bgcolor="000000"pluginspage="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/indext.html"></embed><!-- end tag --><br>
<big><b>Introduction</big></b><br><br>Most of the recent information on setting up a character (or «rigging« as it«s often referred to) in a high-end 3D software package tends to be somewhat verbose and quite complicated. They are written this way intentionally to show the wide range of tools and tricks they have to offer, many of which can be useful. However, only a few basic steps are absolutely necessary. <br><br>In this tutorial we will go over a relatively fast and easy way of creating a biped character Smooth Skinned and weighted with Joints (or bones) and some IK (explained later). This method is designed to get you through the rigging process and on to animating with a fully functional character as fast as possible. We will be using a very simple character model, one of basic primitive shapes to get right down to it, and not worry about your computer taking too long to update a complicated mesh in your view panel. <br><br><!-- streaming movie embed tags --><embed width="600" height="420" border="0" controller="false"href="http://gizmatron.mesmer.com/Movies/tutorials/Demo3.mov" target="myself"src="http://gizmatron.mesmer.com/Movies/clickhere.mov" bgcolor="000000"pluginspage="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/indext.html"></embed><!-- end tag --><br>