The rigging process - Part 1



Having already sourced the model and applied the corresponding textures, I have decided it’s time to take on the rigging aspect of the project. The rigging process started by creating the basic ‘biped’ (human) rig using 3DS Max’s option available under the ‘Create -> Systems -> Biped’ menu. The said option allows the user to create a full human-like rig with already set IK (Inverse Kinematics) chains and such.

After creating the rig, I had to move it inside the mesh and scale it so that it fit the said mesh. To do that, I had the mesh frozen into place and then turned on the ‘See-through’ option in order to make the whole process more convenient. As the rig essentially represents the internal bone structure of a character, I had to rescale and reposition each bone to fit within the sizes of the mesh. I have started by rotating and scaling the pelvis bone and moved up towards the head of the character, as seen in a video tutorial by the content creator ‘BitHalo’. I have later learned that by going through this process of scaling, rotating and translating individual bones to fit the mesh you’re simplifying the skinning process, preserving time. Having said that, I moved onto the right arm and leg and repeated the same process as above.

Translating, rotating and scaling finger joints to fit the mesh


'Copy/Paste' option


         
           However, I had only been working on one side of the character and completely left out the left arm and leg – and that is because 3DS Max features an option called ‘Copy_Collections’, represented in the adjacent image.

I have used the option to create two different collections of bones (one for the right arm, and one for the right leg) and then effectively copied the attributes of the said bones onto the bones on the other side. The result was that the right side of the rig was now symmetrical to the left side, without having spent any additional time on repeating the same process all over again for the elements on the other side of the rig.







           Having finished adjusting the rig to fit the mesh, I knew form the research I’ve done that the next step would be creating and assigning different control objects to the rig, which in turn would allow for better control of the mesh and in consequence resulting better animations. However, I have soon realised that I hit a brick wall in the development of the project. The next three to four hours I have spent reading materials and watching videos on the internet to no avail: I couldn’t find a way to link the objects called ‘helpers’ to the IK chains of the rig. That means that although I had created multiple helpers and placed them accordingly, I could not make them control the movement of the chosen joint or body part(s). However, moving the joint was affecting the parent helper, which did not make too much sense to me, because it should’ve been the other way around. Although the two objects (the chosen joint and the helper cube) were linked with the helper being the parent, the joint wouldn’t budge when moving the helper but instead the helper would follow when the joint was moved. Having the joint as parent and the helper as child did not work either, the interaction between the two being identical. I have found out at a later point that that was due to the fact that the pre-set ‘biped’ rig the software offers has also pre-set IK chains that cannot be modified or adjusted, making the correct linking of a custom shape (controller / helper) impossible. On the other hand, building my own rig using the bones system 3DS Max offers would allow me to create custom controllers as necessary.

Trying to assign a custom controller


 In conclusion, this week I have learned that although the already-built biped rig 3DS Max offers makes it convenient to use when looking to create quick animations, the general flexibility of the rig and available options are rather lacklustre when compared to a custom built rig. Due to the overall scope of the project I have decided that creating my own custom rig would benefit me greatly, as it will not only allow for a greater understanding of the IK and FK chains, but I will be able to freely assign custom controllers as well.

References:

 BitHalo, 2016. 3DS Max - Rigging Biped FULL Tutorial. [online] YouTube. Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuWmf3MaG6g&t=1672s&list=PLwnsfil42NA4ezewQGANv1lr_hk-SdMKL&index=3> [Accessed 21 Nov. 2018].



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