Wrestling with Maya

Ha....

What a load of crap... We jumped in without even knowing how to navigate maya... Haiz...

Anyhow... This is an important discovery for the rigging pipeline:

1. Align:
a. Model (textured)
b. Joints
c. Nurbs circle


How to align? Make sure all the 3 above are at point of origin. Check the attributes (Ctrl+A) on the node. I had to realign the joints manually, then translate the model & circle accordingly. But it was not so hard after realising what to do. It's the "How do I do this" that really wasted a lot of my time.

Then:

Modify-->Center Pivot
Modify-->Freeze Transformation


Constraint!!!

Joints + Circle

Constrain-->Orient
Constrain-->Points

Now follow this process to the T!

ALWAYS SET THE IK FIRST BEFORE binding the skin!

Skin --> Bind Skin --> Smooth Bind

This way, the nurbs circle will create a marionette (? wiki check later) for controlling instead of controlling the individual joints.


Then Paint Yer Skin Weights to the joints........... Grr... I did this so many times I want to cry....

Skin-->Edit Smooth Skin-->Paint Skin Weights

There's an "A-har!" here. Always start from the outermost joint, working your way in... And always toggle hold weight.

On painting weights.
Personally, I like to flood with full black bg, then work in the selected joint area.

After that, check the attributes of the joints. Ctrl+A.
Sometimes, this could be turned off. Right Click to see if it's toggled on. X=On.

The most important thing here for natural looking joint bends is the:
Smooth Skin Parameters!!!!

So take care of that here.