"Finn the Rigdoll"
Thursday, November 26, 2009 at 4:12AM Finally I've gotten around to actually posting the finished 
pose&render by Sverre Kvernmorig I've been working on these last weeks.
Feel free to use this rig in any project you want, but do remember and give proper credit. It wouldn't hurt with a link to this website either.
After some work tonight I've also put together a quick video walk through of the rig. The project I was given was to rig a simple bipedal character without a face. As I've stated earlier I also had a control group consisting of Sverre, Remi and Knut. Knut also made the model.
They've all made valuable suggestions and corrections during the course of this project. In addition Sverre ended up swapping his lip-synch assignment with a fuller review of the rig which can be found here.
Things Done
I believe I've been able to make a stable and intuitive rig with a lot of freedom both in the way it is possible to pose it and how you work with it. There aren't as many "special" and "fancy" functions as I would like, however all of the important ones (or at least almost all) are present.
One of the biggest issues I had was getting the knees to function the way I wanted them to. After trying 5 different methods for a week I decided to go back to my original design and let the foot control the alignment of the knee.
I also added four different types of eyes that you can combine in any way you see fit. I know I wasn't supposed to add a face of any kind but i just couldn't resist. Anyway you can hid parts or the entire face if you so desire.
reverse foot rig
One of the coolest things I've learned to do properly is setting up proper IK/FK switching on the arms. I haven't set up an IK/FK switch on the legs because I use what's called a reverse foot rig setup and that isn't really doable with an FK system. If anyone has any ideas on how to merge the two, please leave a comment. If not, I guess I'll have to use another foot setup to get the functionality that I want.
pose&render by Sverre KvernmoNot Included
Both I and the members of my control group came up with many things that would've been nice to implement. Unfortunately a few of them were either too time consuming or I simply didn't know how to do it. A few of the ones I know how to do but didn't have time to add are;some controller to adjust the with of the hips and the shoulders, pose saving for the entire body, a better and more flexible spine and a better stretching solution for the arms.
In the end I feel like I've learned a lot and I can't wait to get started on a new rig so I may add the things I didn't do know and maybe even more. I might even try my hand at a quadruped or some other crazy stuff.
The last thing I'll add is the walkthrough on how to use the rig and a final thanks to Paul Neale for making a great rigging dvd for max, and for putting out many useful scripts for free on his site(one of which is heavily used in this rig).
press the image for the tutorial
Reader Comments (3)
Quote: "I also added four different types of eyes that you can combine in any way you see fit. I know I wasn't supposed to add a face of any kind but i just couldn't resist." LOL!
And you know, i love you for it!;)
This guy knows his stuff... I can honestly say, there's noone I'd rather be stuck with in a rigger-foxhole! Hooah!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ND_-mK8kIgk&playnext_from=TL&videos=LRTrzMcPrFI