Rigging Tutorial

Our tutor started off the tutorial on rigging by going through some problems that occur within modelling
The warp problem occurs if you were to move or scale an objects vertices and then rotate it, the object appears to warp while rotating. This is because the object is taking its transformation information as if it were the original shape created.
To resolve this problem, just freeze the transformations, it will now be a new shape and not have any new transform information in the channel box, it will then rotate and pivot correctly.

Rotation hierarchy:
We learnt that rotation values have a hierocracy. On the transform attributes, you can change the order of rotation. In Maya, “x” is the rotation parent.
It is important when animating to make the main axis of movement the parent in the hierarchy. This is to try and prevent Gimbal lock even before the problem has occurred. However it is always possible if an object rotates 90 degrees in two axis (this is rare).
An example of this would be a camera. The most important movement a camera usually does is panning left and right so and the least important is up and down. So if the left to right pan is the first rotation axis to be animated, the chances are a pan up and down will not result in gambol lock.

Joints:
There is at first an unorthodox approach to modelling joints, as it is best to make joints by changing between front and side views. This is so the placement of the joints can be accurate.
Before making the actual joints and like all other tools within Maya, it’s always best to reset the tool before using to make sure there isn’t any unnecessary tool usage.
Joints always have a translate value unlike objects, so it is best to be sure the joints are placed in the correct position first time. If you were to fine tune the position of the joints, they would have more translate values. This would make animation more confusing.
“Ctrl” and “V” will snap a selected locator to a vertices. This is important when creating joints
By selecting component mode and then the question mark button, you can select a set of joints to see the direction of the rotation axis. It is important to know the direction of the rotation axis. If they all face the same direction you can select multiple joints and make them rotate the same direction (this is useful for a leg or arm animation). If the rotation axis were facing different direction, a selected set of joints would create a hinge motion which may be desirable for an Ostridge leg or robotic walker for example.
The direction of the rotation axis on joints also affects animation in the graph editor, as it may create confusing curves that go in opposite directions.
Labelling joints is important to distinguish between left and right. As well as being able to allocate the correct joint to the correct shape on the attribute editor.

Layering:
Layering is important for joints as after they have been attached to the model you don’t need to see or use them. A layer will enable you to switch between seeing joints “V (in the layers box)”. And you can switch between being able to select the joints with the Reference button “R (in the layers box)” .
The layers can have allocated colours; this is handy for separating the left and right parts of the model.

Constraints:
Constraints override parenting, they are absolute. It is possible to place multiple constraints on an object to create an averaged transformation.
Constraints can be used to create the visual effect of muscle movement.
You can translate and rotate a constraint but not scale it.
The Connection Editor allows Constraints to be an effective way to create buttons, leavers and pulley systems within Maya.