How to Rig a Character in Maya for Unity (+ Most Game Engines)

[@reiskeks7992]

I'm speechless. I worked with lightwave for character rigging and animating and it took me hours and days to have a rigged character with kind of proper controllers and IK handles. And then I do this tutorial in Maya and it takes me freaking 15 minutes and everything is perfectly done?! Thanks for that tutorial, you just made my life easier

[@DavidKeymer]

Good audio + Perfect length + Useful Information = GREAT TUTORIAL!

[@adriantheman167]

You explained rigging in a way that is honestly more understandable than anything I've seen previously. Keep up the awesome work, and I'll be watching all of your tutorials this week.

[@hellodolly7989]

This was so professional. Great mic quality, love the BG music. Liked and Subscribed, I hope more people realize how great your channel is in the future.

[@Filmstorm]

+HelloDolly thanks glad you enjoyed it!

[@prashanthbhogaraju2944]

This is so awesomeeeee... Finally rigging seems easy now. Hey @filmstorm could you please also make a video of rigging a bit in detail. I mean like adding controls, adding foot roll, heel roll. It would be great to have that as a continuation to these rigging videos. Thanks and keep up the amazing work.

[@oasane]

From 0 knowledge to pro rigger! Thanks a lot dude. I didn't even know the Maya's UI until this video, I feel somehow proficient at rigging thanks to you.

[@Filmstorm]

+Ozan Ayten thanks Ozan!

[@recklesflam1ngo968]

Thank you dude! Ive been having trouble with my low poly character I've made for a digital media certificate im doing and this helped me tremendously!

[@Filmstorm]

Awesome! Glad to hear it 👍🏼👍🏼

[@tomforwood]

Fantastic tutorial, clear and concise. Makes rigging so much easier!

[@jaeshon_jones]

YES!!! The missing piece to my puzzle. Subscribed!

[@Filmstorm]

+Jae Shon woo! Glad to hear it!

[@dj51401]

wow the bind skin options helped a bunch. I didnt even have to edit the weights it generated. Thanks!

[@OneGhastlyGhoul]

Pls don't forget to talk about Joint Axis Orientation. If people place their joints like you did without the right settings (e.g. for automatic orientation), they'll mess it up.

[@aquaflare1]

Kudos to having the only useful tutorial ive been able to find. Thanks a lot! :D

[@silvaright]

This is so helpful, subscribed, keep up the good tutos mate.

[@izzitme2707]

Fantastic video! Just what I needed. Thank you!

[@Filmstorm]

+izzitme 2 Thank you for watching!

[@JHowOfficial]

Thank you soooo much! And it just so happens that you were using the same model as me, so it made following along a helluva lot easier! You earned a sub!

[@juancarlosbonilla4138]

Thanks, just what i was looking for. Greeting from Honduras

[@incj12]

omg this is gold , you have a new subscriber!

[@Filmstorm]

+Bertupac Glad to have helped!

[@kayesahmedT]

Very nice Tutorial...Subscribed keep the good work man.

[@Filmstorm]

Thanks buddy!

[@Lucas1a]

Really good tutorial! Thanks!

[@frylander]

Love you for this tutorial! Im learning unity and maya, and even zbrush, so having this really helps me since rigging is the part that im not really learning much about. No homo though, have a nice day!

[@gameswithfrank]

Priceless this one ! Awesome tut :D

[@Filmstorm]

Thanks Kross Fire!

[@gameswithfrank]

+Filmstorm Studios :) You're welcome. I wanted to ask about a simple gun sway system for the FPS tutorials and also how the bullet holes get spawned with their relative rotation concerning the surfaces the player hits.. Thanks in advance !

[@ATROCITYLEGIONS]

Amazing Tutorial. A question, what is the best workflow for connecting some facial rigs to this? i mean eyes rotation for example. Just parenting to the superior joint of the head?

[@planebreach]

I've seen plenty of tutorials on the same topic but so far i haven't seen any on using the same method and adding different joints like jaw, eyes and stuff like bags and so on to it ... can you make something about it.

[@AdamSweeney85]

This was amazing I have been trying to find a easier way to rig and weight for years now! Thank you. Do you think you could show how to add jaw bone to the rig using this same method?

[@Filmstorm]

+bathorysthroat Yes I sure can!

[@AdamSweeney85]

Wow thanks!

[@AdamSweeney85]

@@Filmstorm Hi, did you ever end up making a video on this?

[@lexithecalm9519]

great tutorial, keep up the good work.

[@Filmstorm]

+Lexi The Calm Thanks!

[@devincory9695]

At about 9:54 when you go to export the rig, there is an option in the 'file' menu (highlighted in green) that says "Send to Unity..." What is that for? How/When would I use it? Will it produce better results than a general export?

[@Filmstorm]

I actually find that in built Game Exporter functions in Maya seem to give dodgy results most of the time. It usually forgets to send specific objects or skeletons correctly over. Better to use the standard export in my opinion.

[@Switchpoppy]

There should be a link to this tutorial in the Unity Documentation. Frickin awesome.

[@Filmstorm]

Thanks Edward!

[@Mr.Mortal007]

Very good and simple. Great work thumbs up... Any video on Animation?

[@pandarzzz]

Thank you very much for sharing this video! It is very informative and easy-to-follow! :)

[@Filmstorm]

Awesome! Thanks for watching! 👍🏼

[@vasquezoliveira]

Great tutorial! easy to understand and follow! :D

[@Myselfsama]

Great content man :)

[@Filmstorm]

Thanks Myselfsama!

[@renaudreguieg7515]

Great work, just wanted to let you know :) And thank you by the way!

[@Filmstorm]

+Renaud Reguieg Thanks Renaud!

[@wildcookie]

I cant seem to move the body when selecting bones (8:50), i select the part and try to move it on x y or z axis but the character stays stationary. Any ideas?

[@SiamHasan]

Best Tutorial ever

[@EzanVaktiVeKuran]

My rigged character model does not appear in Unity, can you help me what is the reason?

[@ChuckPalomo]

I'm confused, I though humanik only worked with t-poses. For me it throws up an error whenever the arms are not aligned with the x axis, as it happens when trying to work with an a-pose.

[@hani_issa]

earned my subscribe from the first 15 seconds :D Useful information, good sound quality (would like to know what it is) thanks

[@Filmstorm]

Thanks Haha Wanek. Recorded using a Yeti Mic.

[@hani_issa]

***** the snowball version or blue yeti ? thanks

[@drews5744]

Was the 3d model you used for this a singular 3d object ( like 2 cubes fused together as one object) or a collection of 3d objects (like 2 cubes designated to the same group?) thanks

[@oasane]

Can you also show how to make&save different animations for this rig ? I'm seting keyframes but, something goes wrong with my animation. Rotating or moving around streches the character in a bad way sometimes.

[@Filmstorm]

+Ozan Ayten Yes Ozan, I will show you :)

[@justinspearlord]

How would you go about bringing this rig into UE4? And could you re-target this rig to the default mannequin rig?

[@TheStrandedMoose]

This is awesome, thanks so much for making this video! I was wondering... how do you edit/paint the weights if they are off? For instance, some of the joints in my arms are binding to the side of my character's head because my character has a huge head

[@TheStrandedMoose]

never mind, I figured it out. Thanks again!

[@Filmstorm]

That’s great to hear you got it working. If you need any more help just let me know.

[@MauricioBG]

Hello! I got 2 questions for you: every bone shouldn´t have zero rotation in all axes? So how can you rotate the arm the way you did? And this will generate warnings in the HIK definition "not parallel to the X axis", this could be ignored?

[@vasili1207]

I have been subscribed for a while.I like your tutorial's the way you explain thing's looking forward to more unity stuff. I Bought Playmaker to follow your tut's. This Rigging tut has come at the right time i have so many Zbrush sculpt's to rig it's stupid, I tried blender but i cannot gel with it. I may try maya thank you. P.s What happend to your store?

[@Filmstorm]

+Time Waster Digital It is getting a redesign, make it a bit better to use, It will be back online soon!

[@kaidkyoung4298]

how do you weight painting and rig the character with cloth?? my character's body always come out of the cloth (new to 3D stuff)

[@narumaster007]

Man this is awesome :D now why is it that other people put out 8 part tutorials on this when you accomplished this in one?

[@jasonwhyttes1679]

without using Maya's human IK system you would have a pretty hard time creating a character rig with the level of information provided in this video, perhaps that's why.

[@oSHUTUPMEGo]

narumaster007 it's because this is a very basic rig, rigging is quite a complex task if done from scratch (best way to do it coz have more control on how rig works) if all you need is a very basic rig then this method is great if any added functionality then you must do from scratch with the knowledge of how rigging work that's why people have 8+ part tutorials

[@shyland20]

beautiful work . can you recommend me show reel of good rigger here on youtube? thanks

[@siddharthpaul6539]

when am clicking on create skeleton ,outliner is showing rig but ther is nothing on the viewport just a null named (QuickRigCharacter_Guides) is there ...help plz

[@Aishiki1029]

I have a boneset from a unity model and I want to use said boneset to rig a model for unity, but I can't figure out how to get the boneset into Maya so that it can be rigged to the Character model, btw the boneset was given to me as a fbx file

[@pianist150]

What if you have an irregular character? I have a question mark so he'd only have 1 "leg". When I try to give him a join chain and then hit "Control Rig" it tells me I don't have all the required bones to do this. Is there a workaround? Thank you

[@TocoDeply]

The perfect number for max influences are 4, especially for Unity, which doesn´t allow you more than it. For Unreal you can use until 8 but for the best performance I recommend you 4 too.

[@aRVinDbob]

is there any possible way to frezz transform the CTRls of the character in this process?

[@spellwhisperrr]

Question ! How to prevent file turning in to poop storm ? When re-opening in maya ?

[@mustafamahmoudabbasobeid9261]

very useful , thanks

[@Filmstorm]

You’re very welcome 👍🏼

[@animationblaster]

Your tutorial is Very Easy to understad.but when you import the character into unity, where is the human controller ?

[@Filmstorm]

+Manish Kumar Click on the imported model and then change it from Generic to Humanoid. Now follow one of the 3rd person tutorials to create your controller :)

[@nickolay_startcev]

IT IS SO COOL !!! IT IS SO F*CKIN COOL !!! IT IS EASY TO UNDERSTAND !!! THANKS FOR YOUR JOB !!!

[@Filmstorm]

+Николай Старцев You're welcome

[@lilitbeglarian7942]

Thank you so much for this!

[@ldoglondon]

Hey so ist his an IK rig and can you apply rag doll physics to it in unity?

[@Filmstorm]

Yes the created rig has IK. Then you create ragdoll physics with this tutorial kzbin.info/www/bejne/f4uQp3WFiK2iras

[@neohayabusa13]

Thanks so much for tutorial . For any Chance, Do you have any advice and reccomendation of a way to attach a Head of same character that comes already skinned with face bones to the Human Ik Rig? Such as those 3d models from Xna Lara and Poser that come imported as Fbx (3dmodel with bones and already skinned, but don't just don't have any controllers or ik). Let's say I skin the whole character body with human Ik. but now I just want to attach only head from same character that is already skinned with bones into the Head skeleton of human ik. Can you point orient this head with face bones to the human Ik head? (and hide geometry of the Human ik head that has no face bones?) I will keep searching but if you have any recommendations, greatly appreciated.

[@masteranthony6312]

Well done ,, one of the best tutorials I have seen on here , I have been using Maya for a while now however not for rigging I am just getting started on that , Is there any way you can use Maya to put riggs in Charactors for games like second life , most people use blender but i dont like it .

[@TheRealKMM]

How can i show that button that makes the mesh unselectable? thanks in advance

[@wakeupshivi]

mate can you provide me the deadpool model or tell me where i can get the model in obj format?

[@dylanhynds5877]

How would you use the same skinning method for Maya 2014? I really need some help Asap.

[@gitwilma4286]

For some reason, when I do this I don't have the rig controls for the contraints, those circles around certain joints. I'm not really sure how to pop them up, apart from adding them in manually, which I'm not sure I can do without breaking the automatic rig...

[@Mikasawajima1234]

excuse me, just asking... so I need to animate the asset (something like this) in a different comps and I found that I can't move my Human IK rigs... problem is, it's still unsolved. I'm in maya 2017 and when I transfer it to another comps with the same version the rigs won't work normaly... pls help me ;____;

[@johnwilsonvito2670]

i saw many tutorials but this did the trick now how do i get my model to be my player character? :D

[@johnwilsonvito2670]

i dont get it it wont work now

[@sanicartoons5395]

Nice and informative

[@bilosofie]

what if i have multiple animations n i want to export them to unity

[@GrayveRoseMusic]

This is how you would go about doing it the quickest way possible, I wouldnt consider it a standard or dignified practice. Should definitely spend a good amount of time painting weights to make sure the model doesnt bend like a wet noodle, and then design a character rig with controllers and other animation helpers as well if needed.

[@Aplus632]

hey filmstorm can you help me every time i create the skeleton it's always laying down not standing like yours

[@Filmstorm]

+Daftkicks gaming You’ll probably need to go into your Maya preferences and change your axis to Y-up :)

[@Siatsgaming]

Great tutorial! But I have the problem that the animation is deforming my whole model which makes it look very goofy! Do u know where my the problem is? I am really struggling right here!

[@dissonantprotean5495]

you sound as relaxed as bob ross

[@jaydenwolfe4955]

I'm working in maya 2015 and I got to the point where the bones have been colored but on the right side of my screen I do not have the "Character Controls". I'm new to this and I had created my own character and am not sure if I am able to access this, could someone help me out?

[@manners642]

Great stuff! May I ask if this will work for Unreal Engine too? Currently doing a uni project and trying to rig and animate a robotic character for a small game demo! Thanks for your help! :)

[@Filmstorm]

It sure will, if you have animations from another pack that is built on the unreal mannequin skeleton you can retarget them to work with the maya humanik skeleton. I show how to do it in part 2 of my unreal tutorial 👍🏼

[@manners642]

Filmstorm Oh brilliant, thank you so much for the quick reply! Will certainly check it out! I'm still very new to this process, I almost finished the model but am unsure about what to do first, retopology, using Substance painter, or rigging and animating (am still also working on mechanics within the UE4 project too). Tutorials like this very much help as rigging and animating seems so daunting otherwise!

[@thisischokochi9853]

Grate tutorial! :D I there a metod to put some extra bones?

[@Filmstorm]

Yes when you creating the skeleton at the start, you have the option to add extra bones :)

[@214truema]

i have a problem with my rig when i finish weight painting and import into unreal engine it looks blocky but it looks smooth in maya even after I subdivided it twice

[@Filmstorm]

Which format do you export your model in? Usually that happens with .OBJ. I would suggest FBX if that's continuing to happen.

[@214truema]

Thanks , i fixed it . I was exporting as FBX but i forgot to delete the history and non-deformed from the edit menu

[@letsplaysomthing3799]

hello what about unreal engine 4 its posible to do same but for unreal skeletal?

[@obayjaafari4477]

Hi I doubt you'll see this but ill try anyways, I have rigged some characters with a bit complicated rig using blendshapes for facial expressions and ikspline in maya for the spine, however in unity its not working especially the spine and blendshapes do you know why is this happening?

[@Filmstorm]

Usually you should have made a custom rig if your wanting to use blendshapes in Unity. I’ll probably make a tutorial to cover this as I have had a few questions about this 👍🏼

[@demonitgames]

Will u make for 3smax

[@TheStrandedMoose]

Hey man- again, awesome tutorial! I had one more question: Is there a way to get the Humanoid rig to squash and stretch once you've set it up? I am animating my own character and it seems like all the rig controls do not allow for free translation or squash and stretch

[@Filmstorm]

Hi Andrew, I believe in the HumanIK properties for your setup rig you can adjust how far bones are allowed to move and stretch in a way. It may be enough to tweak and use for squash and stretching with minimal setup.

[@TheStrandedMoose]

I haven't been able to find that but I did notice you can grab the root control using the character control picker GUI and scale the entire character up and down which is good enough for me. Thanks!

[@stopfidgetting]

Will it still work if I delete bones? (I have a character with only 3 fingers)

[@Filmstorm]

Yes if it’s just the fingers then it will be perfect still. It’s all about that root node. :)

[@bissukhadgi6124]

excus me sir... can we use same process for making an animation??

[@Filmstorm]

Yes you would need to have the character rigged first and then you can create any animation you want either via Keyframe or importing Mocap.

[@letmego11]

How that animation pose was compatible with your humanIK rigged?!

[@Filmstorm]

+letmego11 Which pose are you referring to? Any rig made with my method will allow animation poses :)

[@letmego11]

when you opened your model inside Unity, you already had the Idle animation in your asset folder. you just applied the animation to your character (so your animation was compatible to your new character even though you had made that animation on a different character before). So I am confused, did you make that animation on another humanIK before? In another words, if you import a mixamo animation instead, does the animation still play on this humanIK character?

[@lilHoodRD]

I Like'd a lot! Thanks!

[@Filmstorm]

Thanks so much!

[@R-SXX]

Does this still work today? I am still thinking I use CAT and animate inside 3dsmax, or do this approach...

[@Filmstorm]

Yes it still works, you can also use 3ds max and the CAT rig as an alternative. Depends on which one you prefer working with. CAT is great for procedural animations and the HumanIK in maya is great for mocap. 👍🏼

[@R-SXX]

@@Filmstorm Thank you so much! Then I will go and use 3DSMax, one more question though...is it possible to rig the char. with CAT and animate inside Unity? I had some issues back then with my first attempt and then decided to animate inside 3dsmax, but would be cool if thats possible. Thanks again for the fast answer :D

[@Filmstorm]

Yes you can use animations that are made in CAT in Unity. The trick which helps is when exporting from 3ds Max is to disable bake animation button (but still have the animation box ticked above it). CAT rigs tend to have a lot of helpers and keyframe a lot of nonsense into the rig so it’s important to disable that box when exporting to get the best results 👍🏼 Good luck!

[@R-SXX]

@@Filmstorm Wow, that might actually fix the problem... thanks! You helped me out a lot :D

[@aditries7909]

Its brilliant

[@CupCakeUnleashed]

I keep getting an error when exporting. Delete non-deformer history. I do that and it just breaks the model

[@Filmstorm]

+Cup Cake Unleashed what you want to do before you rig your model is select all of your model, go to the top bar and click edit-> delete of all by type -> history. Now rig your model and you won't get any errors ;) Basically when you make your model in maya in doesn't like having a history when it comes to rigging so we have to clear it before we start to rig :) hope this helps!

[@CupCakeUnleashed]

YES

[@francoisdlcrx]

You are awesome!

[@heartattack8718]

I'm Using Maya 2017, and when i try to make skeleton it won't show up. Can you reply Asap please it will much appreciated!

[@Filmstorm]

+Noodlzz_ hmm it's a bit odd. Is it possible to take a screenshot after you try to make the skeleton. That way I can see what's wrong :)

[@heartattack8718]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/jYeYdmSaoK2Eeq8 here is the screenshot i have taken. I hope it will help you to identify the problem I'm having. Thanks!

[@avischiffmann6220]

my guys head got cruhed in the process lol!

[@Filmstorm]

+The Crime Lime Before you bind your model to the skeleton. Click on your mesh and go to edit -> delete all history. Now go to edit -> freeze transformations and now try rigging it. It won't deform then :)

[@avischiffmann6220]

where is the freeze transformations in the settings?

[@CamoflaugeDinosaue]

In Maya its Modify->Freeze Transformations. Also you can right click the attributes in the channel box and click freeze, and choose whether to freeze Translate, Rotate, Scale, or all.

[@harrytulloch887]

so with method you don't need to Paint skin weights anymore

[@munyreach3009]

Is this method good for animation too?

[@Filmstorm]

Sure is, you can animate your characters and then retarget them in your selected platform (Unreal Engine, Unity... etc)

[@jeromyperez5532]

Song?

[@damocles5047]

hi man. i'm trying to mirror one one side to other joint but it wont work, why?

[@damocles5047]

well i've figured by myself. its bcz of the lock.

[@Filmstorm]

That’s great that you got it working! 👍🏼

[@danny76363]

Thank you.

[@Blazebringer12]

I Need a Quick Help please i'm using maya 2016 too when i use the mirror it work but all the bones gonna be like tiny wires and joints disappear i only see small wires i google it i try everything nothing works if i make new skeleton it gonna be fine but once i use the mirror option the bones will be so tiny and looks like wires (sorry for my bad English hope you answer me fast kindly)

[@Filmstorm]

Try scaling up the model before you start to rig? Might sound simple but it could help...

[@Blazebringer12]

i find the problem it was because of unreal engine 4 ART Tools i remove it and it work fine i think can only use UE4 A.R.T on Maya 2014 otherwise we will have this kinda weird glitch

[@falibu]

actually it's that the mesh needs to be scaled down because the joints work in centimeters in the background and even if you change the units in prefs, the joints will only scale up so far, even at 10, still looking like wires with the controls being too tiny to see. i learned this the hard way over the past few days :(

[@Bobeer]

Thanks man

[@Haruyuki_Art]

awesome thank you

[@deebeeden]

Don't you need to paint weighting?

[@Filmstorm]

Not if the auto rig biding cover the mesh well and the geodesic voxel count is around 512. 👍🏼 You may need to use skin weight painting to fix trouble areas. I was planning on doing a tutorial to cover this.

[@deebeeden]

Thank for your advice.

You're awesome

[@Filmstorm]

Thanks!

[@حلوْ-ص2ر]

I want deadpool project please