Maya Rope Rigging Tutorial

Rope Rigging Tutorial for Maya
IK Spline Rigging technique with Advanced Twist Controls
A hanging ceiling lamp is shown in this example but this technique can be effectively be used for various kinds of rope rigs.
cheers! Feel free to drop me a message if there are questions or suggestions! Thanks!

[@CardboardKeene]

8 years later, thank you for making this video

[@bervync]

Thanks Ronald! Saving our skins even 7 years later hahahha :)

[@RonaldFong]

Hahaha! Hey Bervyn, let me know if you need more help rigging!

[@amyheyes3959]

Great tutorial, thank you!

[@RonaldFong]

most welcome!

[@Rajuuken]

Thanks for your time! I learned a lot!

[@yeseulshin920]

Thank you for the great tutorial!

[@RonaldFong]

+Yeseul Shin no problem! glad it helps! :D

[@drjohobo177]

Thankyou! Your tutorial was so helpful and useful :D

[@RonaldFong]

Thanks! Glad it helped!

[@rrussdraws]

Very useful! Thanks for posting it up!

[@RonaldFong]

oh I didn't see your comment Russell! haha! glad this video helped in some way :)

[@HideoGojira]

This was amazing, thank you!

[@RonaldFong]

glad you find it useful. cheers!

[@ruslopuslo]

Amazing! Tahnks!

[@RonaldFong]

Np!

[@dwainehiggins4451]

very nice sir! I would give you a virtual high five to create some advanced rigging videos :D *high five anyway*

[@gaitubeciiNK]

Thanks man! You saved the day!

[@RonaldFong]

glad you found it useful! have fun! :)

[@RalphManis]

For those in need... @7:07 duplicate -po (duplicate, space, dash, po) It is hard to see and hard to hear correctly.

[@RalphManis]

@5:05 I had to hide everything except the joints go get the CV Curve and IK Spline handle tools to connect right. with the effectors showing the IK handles were connecting to the locators instead of the CV curve.

[@RonaldFong]

that's a good tip! thanks!

[@noobswillRULE]

thank you sir!

[@RonaldFong]

you're welcome! glad to help. yes, noobs will rule!

[@penndragon16]

this is a good technique the only problem with using the IK spline rig is you cant make the rig scale. ik splines rigs just wont scale correctly .

[@RonaldFong]

Hi penndragon16, thanks for your comment! :) IK spline rigs when used correctly, will scale correctly. I'm not sure if I did it right in this video, but I'm sure you'll be able to find a solution! All the best!

[@Imaginestud]

I know how to scale

[@lechonmaster]

Hi Ronald, thank you so much for posting this. This is the most helpful clear tutorial rig I've seen here so far. I got stuck at one part though. My rig is longer (25 joints) so when I get to the part where I enable the twist controls in my chain_IKH @ 09:19, it doesn't seem to do that nice twist that happens with yours. My chain_B_DVR just turns the bottom two joins uniformly, not smooth or gradual. The top chain_A_DVR does the same, twisting everything below uniformly.blockily. Everything else before that worked though, so I'm confused how to fix it. Help please?,

[@lechonmaster]

Never mind, I figured it out. I think what fixed it was deleting the last joint similar to how you did it @ 02:18. I took note that, without doing so, that last joint's LRA didn't face downwards like the rest, and that deleting that joint leaves the prior joint still facing down. That's how it ended up working for me anyways. Thanks regardless!

[@RonaldFong]

Walter Ruyeras glad you found the solution! good work! =)

[@ravenfive3864]

How to I bind the rope geometry to the rig though?

[@RonaldFong]

select the rope geometry, then only the deformation joints, and choose "Bind Skin" (or a similar option, can't remember what it's called in Maya) good luck Daniel!

[@MissCartoonist]

Great tutorial - thank you! But when I try to move the whole thing to somewhere else, the lampshade geo and the rope joints go flying off ahead of wherever I drag the cursor - how can I fix this??

[@RonaldFong]

I think you're experiencing double transformation. You shouldn't expect them to move as a whole or individually. Instead. You should only be moving the controllers :) Good luck!

[@MissCartoonist]

@@RonaldFong Ah, I see. :) Thanks!

[@RonaldFong]

​@@MissCartoonist No problem! rigging is confusing and I'm glad to have helped! Also interestingly, softwares like Houdini and off-the-shelf rigging tools like AdvancedSkeleton helps a lot with all our rope-y situations now in my studio. So, we don't necessarily use these custom rigging techniques very often anymore, and I'm super thankful for softwares become faster and capable so we don't have to work so hard on these technicalities anymore. haha! Just wanted to put it out there since this video is more than 6 years old!

[@MissCartoonist]

@@RonaldFong Aahh, I see! I'm actually an animator rather than a rigger, so even an old-ish technique like this works fine for the simple project I'm doing. :D

[@Gullzee]

Can you make a similar tutorial on rigging a whip weapon

[@aninditaray7110]

hello sir i want a tutorial on how to rig a chain there should be two blocks which is holding the chain and when we will move any of the block the chain will move along hope i make you understand :( :| i use maya 2016 please help sir

[@Ryzler13]

Hi, You could put a gravity node and a passive collier, wont that generate the same animation if something bumps it. Is there any way to apply tension to ropes? Like on a sail or holding down tent? Or a rope holding down the top of a tree and the tree snapping back when rope is broken or released? A rope holding a sail and then tightening it to stretch the sail? Is there a command for that or is that all in the animating key frames? Like before float object people would manually set key frames and animate an object floating. Also things like spring board? Is there a snap back function where things can be held and then let go and they spring back? Can you model a ruler being twanged on the side of a table?

[@RonaldFong]

Hi Ryad, Yes, there are many ways to achieve a rope animation. We can do it through by handkeying or by simulation, or by a combination of both techniques. Unfortunately, simulation is out of the scope of this video. That said, hand-keying is gives us a lot of control over the shapes of the "poses" of the rope so this rigging technique can be useful in that sense. For a springboard/ruler-twang animation, I personally think it's easier to just hand-key it than to run a simulation. Of course, we'll need to have a solid understanding of animation principles to achieve a believable "performance". Hope that answers your questions :)

[@Ryzler13]

Ronald Fong Yes it helps but I actually found a good way and like you said, keying.. I applied the slack ropes to 2 objects, then keyed it frame 1 and then moved to later frame, moved one object away and keyed that. Then the rope stretched. then remove history delete curve and have my taught ropes. drive.google.com/open?id=0B4ydB7AtzWawcllVWXNaZkl5Yk0

[@SRJAnimation]

sweet sound of typing keyboard

[@RonaldFong]

suraj kumar don't we all love it! :D

[@Zora1193]

@Ronald Fong so, how if i wanna make a master controller for those rig to move around? Coz many tutorial i saw, have issue when trying to make a master controller.

[@Corporal_Idiot]

I guess since you made a group, you can make a controller and parent it to the group so that when you press the controller, the entire group is selected. Not sure though. I would try it, but I'm at the office..

[@HobzyMcRuse]

awsome tutorial. Thanks!

[@masonrystudios]

hey matt. glad you found it useful! :)

[@HobzyMcRuse]

Yep, really helped me a lot! :)