Quick Rigging and Skinning a character for beginners

[@Autodesk_Maya]

--> Next Lesson: Add fingers! kzbin.info/www/bejne/epzIhZycoKl7n7M

[@aRVinDbob]

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

[@Jason-w5l]

Sir can I directly learn rigging or I have to start with modelling and texturing? I am new in this field.

[@Autodesk_Maya]

@@Jason-w5l You can definitely learn rigging without knowing how to model or texture. In fact, many professional riggers don't know how to do either!

[@Jason-w5l]

@@Autodesk_Maya Thanks a lot Sir..for clearing my doubts.

[@z.s.2057]

The way you deliver your lesson reminds me of the old Dawn of War tutorial. I must say it makes your video supremely listenable, thank you.

[@ChromaticaForever]

Thanks so much for this! I’m not an Animator but a Game Artist and wanted to at least learn how to make a quick rig and skin so I can pose my characters for presentation :)

[@solitudeau8188]

Old but gold. Still helps in 2019 haha

[@lahcenebelbachir7929]

Just tried it out, worked like a charm! lol

[@Exsulator2]

@@lahcenebelbachir7929 Do you get flipping fk arms when they do more than 90 degree rotation? (eg pointing arm directly forward) also, did you find a way to solve the problem at 15:50 when it comes to MULTIPLE orient constraints with MULTIPLE rotation spaces that does not match up? (such as what the shoulder locator, having been scaled negative X, is doing to the fk rotation space)

[@shiplu69]

2021

[@Afaj-sh8vx]

2021 🗿

[@sajocruzz3184]

2022 🗿

[@jeffdronkers6150]

This also is hard to work with for animators. Since all controls have translation values once rigged and you can not zero them out. It has been like this in the past versions and even in 2018 it is still the case. Please give all controls a standard value of 0,0,0 in the next update to make everyone's life easier. :)

[@RonnieMirands]

do you know man if this has been fixed on the last versions? thanks a lot :)

[@adhdhikaru]

@@RonnieMirands I've heard a way to avoid this is grouping the controller first and doing your transforms on the group, preserving the transforms on the controller as 0, 0, 0.

[@3DeeFanatic]

Jeez you guys seriously suffer from such lack of fundamental features ??? I'm still using Softimage and we don't have this issue, even though stupid Autodesk decided to kill it with the lame excuse "to better serve the industry" and "focus on the development of maya". What a joke.

[@AlexanderDRamos]

​@@3DeeFanaticmaya sucks dude 😭😭😭

[@3DeeFanatic]

@@AlexanderDRamos I know, man. I'm probably going to quit 3D after I'm done with my current project. 3D is not the same without Softimage.

[@kkevinC]

Amazing! Helps a ton. Got my self created character model into unity as a playable character.

[@unknowngamedev909]

i want to make the same thing!!!!!

[@tralthamidor]

The Quick Rigging tool is an awesome addition. Easy to use and this video explains it well. But as most of us have quickly discovered, the hand joints are not included. Without that all of our models are just 'kung-fu fighting'. I have yet to see a quick rig video that shows how to add the hand joints later. I tried but I am not able to get it to work. That simple addition to the video would be tremendously helpful. Thanks.

[@DeepakSingh-fy3fb]

Character is modelled so perfectly

[@mayurbadgujar3582]

Really great tutorial sir. I love this channel. Thank you so much.

[@GENIUSGT]

Yo. DO NOT use human IK tool. It is garbage. I repeat, unless you are using motion capture, DO NOT USE HUMAN IK rigs.

[@pureumyu8931]

I love this channel. Thank you so much!

[@darrenli9754]

Everything goes smoothly until I get to pressing the "Skeleton and Control Rig" create and button.. then a whack skeleton appears off to the side. Any ideas of where I would be going wrong of how to fix it?

[@aps-c1766]

Best Tutorial EVAR

[@ZyenDDT]

evar an evar

[@flexmcpee]

Wow I learned a tone from this. Many thanks!

[@annagiulliabataglia8290]

that is so perfect! thanks so much! quick question tho, how do you put the crush on erase mode?

[@glitchydemonfairy3171]

Thank you! You may have just saved my life!!

[@Androktasiai444]

The speaker has a very pleasant tutorial voice :)

[@markus777]

Super clear

[@dankun3122]

3ds max has better skin painting because it paints on vertices and not polygons if you paint incorrectly the mesh tears apart in maya

[@Xaia]

What do I have to do to rig fingers in this step-by-step mode?

[@Autodesk_Maya]

Although HIK supports finger joints (as well as toes), it unfortunately doesn't play nice with the guides and T-Stance correcting of the Quick Rig Tool specifically. If you need fingers, your best bet is to go with a full HIK setup instead (see the docs here: help.autodesk.com/view/MAYAUL/2017/ENU/?guid=GUID-83281B78-7DB0-4228-88D0-284E4A61564C). You can use the basic skeleton created by the Quick Rig Tool to start, but you will need to manually add finger joints and define them in the Character Control Tool. Another option would be to build a rig specifically for the hands (like the one we made in parts 28 and 29 of our comprehensive rigging tutorial here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/e5fVXmitjNh7gas) and parent constrain it to the wrist joints here. In short, while the Quick Rig tool is very fast and convenient, it is also limited to creating very simple rigs.

[@Xaia]

Thank you!

[@jovontowns591]

Fantastic Question and Awesome Response Via Maya

[@Musetrigger]

I was just about to ask if I could build more joints off of the existing quick rig. That's a time saver. I have to make joints for wings too, as well as fingers.

[@Autodesk_Maya]

Now there's an official followup lesson for fingers! kzbin.info/www/bejne/epzIhZycoKl7n7M

[@LilArrowInkorperated]

Thank you so much! ❤

[@rohitdosti]

Life saver tutorial. Thanks

[@samuelsaksono9414]

Thanks! You made the best tutorial

[@cristophergebhardt9060]

Amazing video

[@rerisonchelsea]

life saver. Thank you very much.

[@КИНОМАН-р3ц]

мне это очень помогло благодарю вас сэр за столь прекрасное видео!!!

[@luke0812]

I finished the comprehensive rig video series, just to realize that it is not very useful for a unity import and rather used for film animation. However I am really happy I did the entire series. I learned alot over the past weeks. I read in the comments that it is possible to use the existing hand joints from this series. Is it possible to import the entire hand rig and its controllers to a new quick rig scene file? Also. Is it possible to add the foot controls, too, since they are much more versatile? I think I would have to delete the foot joints for that. And on a final note. What if I wanted to add a weapon to that character like a speer that he could throw and pick up and put on this back? I think this is far more complex than I realise atm.

[@Autodesk_Maya]

Yes, you can actually just export the hands only and then affix them to your quick rig, then parent constrain them appropriately and add them to the skinning. And yes you can add foot controls the same way. While the character is carrying a weapon, you can parent constrain the weapon to that character. Once the character throws it however, you'll want to reduce the effect of the constraint to 0 since it will be independent of the character.

[@Larrythebassman]

Direct to the point ... no mumbo jumbo _thank you

[@astralstormgamestudios1259]

When I try to constrain head features : Error: Connection not made: 'Jaw_Corrected_parentConstraint1.constraintTranslateX' -> 'Jaw_Corrected.translateX'. Destination is locked. How do I fix this ?

[@mohdparvaiz1063]

really nice sir, good explain

[@Bobeer]

Thank you!

[@thffkfltm]

Thanks.

[@AnindoChatterjee14]

Perfect voice

[@hms2407]

thank you so much

[@amirbabaei7048]

Thank you so much .

[@rishavpaul1704]

tysm for this!🥺🥺

[@warriormaddy420]

thankyou very much

[@lukascook8477]

WOW man, thanks! Great video!

[@krutikatushar6229]

Thank you so much, it helped me a lot

[@ajerqureshi6411]

Hello Maya! You mentioned in a comment before about how quick rig doesn't automatically rig fingers or facial definitions. But could it be possible to add joints to the rigged skeleton? For examples, in regards to the fingers or toes, I made new joints for the fingers and then parent them to the wrist bone. Do I have to re-skin it? Or is there a simplified way?

[@Autodesk_Maya]

You don't have to "re"-skin it, you just have to add those joints to the skin (select both, then go to Skin > Edit Influences > Add Influence in the Rigging menu set). You will have to paint weights for them though.

[@raymondbarreto2888]

Ok but lets say my character has multiple meshes and isnt very humanoid what do i do then

[@yarugatyger1603]

Never rig single meshes rig groups and animate groups.

[@amalkrishna5360]

Still helps in 2021👍👍

[@Rekterrr]

The skin isn't mirror on mine. Can you help me please?

[@PhishChiang]

nice tool, thanks!

[@anaislake]

excellent!

[@supersaiyajin7342]

Amazing video thank you soooo much.. but I have a problem.. when i'm trying to stance.. the body is turning into T pose.. but my mesh is in A pose ☹️

[@Autodesk_Maya]

Super` Saiyajin unfortunately this feature only has support for TPose.

[@cgtutors6435]

Help full. I like it..😊

[@captana7044]

why are fbx exported facial features are disconnected from the rest of the body??

[@H0LAI]

How to prep fbx model for motionbuilder so it works and loads like motionbuilders tutorial fbx models?

[@insuranceaes256]

Quick rig only works with perfect closed meshes, but my meshes are irregular and i have problems using geodesic binding, because my model breaks when moving my character, tried cleaning out my mesh but i failed, do anyone have an idea on what to do? im sure this video will help somebody, so i liked it. have a nice day

[@danascieszko8232]

Can someone explain what is resolution about in Quick Rig Tool?

[@aRVinDbob]

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

[@ScantEgoOfficial]

hey imma beginner and i want to purchase ur products but i just want to knw is i have to be good in drawing or in painting to make characters like these guide me little please

[@Autodesk_Maya]

Not really no. While it can help to know 2D art, 3D is mostly it's own thing.

[@lakshsinghal9234]

can you give a tutorial to make the whole structure of body and expressions, joints and ik handel

[@Autodesk_Maya]

Check out my "Creating a Comprehensive Character Rig" tutorial: kzbin.info/www/bejne/g4eXiYWdormspLs

[@gabeno_delfino]

How do you recover the initial pose? 4:45

[@calys-burn563]

thx a lot !

[@소드마스터-j2r]

It works! thank you :)

[@icedbeam8737]

My mesh has IK handles and the Guides after binding but there are no visible bones to manipulate?

[@Autodesk_Maya]

Check the HumanIK window and make sure the controls are set to visible.

[@sondang558]

thank you

[@magdasmolinska4860]

why it doesnt work when loading the character file and rotating it to have Z and not Y as main axis?

[@NyanPochikun]

5:53 my mesh does not change to the gradient when I select mesh then paint skin weights, I now have a red x

[@Autodesk_Maya]

Did you skin the mesh to the bones first? The red X means that you are attempting to paint a mesh that isn't skinned.

[@kevinbenjamin2744]

When trying to paint the weights it is adding excessive weight all over with just one click. Any solutions?

[@Autodesk_Maya]

Open the Tool Settings and take a look at the Brush settings. You may have it set to an odd shape or size. You can also try going to "Reset Settings" in that window to get back to the defaults.

[@bmas44]

for some reason when i apply the rig only the waist moves, none of the other bones. Does anyone know why this is? I am working from an FBX idk if thats something to do with it

[@TimV777]

i dont have that paint weights or lock weights button on the right side bar

[@Autodesk_Maya]

You may need to open the "Tool Settings Editor" if it doesn't open automatically upon activating the Paint Skin Weights tool

[@everydayhappy965]

How did you meshed it in the first place?

[@splootcrate]

Just diving into this and right off the bat I can see the mirror function doesn't work as expected. It moves the opposite joint but positions it wrong. My character has asymmetrical bits but is centered at 0 on the grid. My character is also made of many pieces that are grouped together. Using Maya 2019. I can see the guides that are automatically created are not perfectly centered either. Is this because of the asymmetry? Current workaround is manually inputting the values into the channel box.

[@randorific333]

@MayaLearningChannel Matt, I'm having a problem with the controllers moving and rotating the appendages. I was using a model I downloaded from CGTrader and thought it was a problem with the model. So I decided to download the model in the link under this video. I'm still having the same issue. I've created the skeleton and control rig exactly as you have done. In the Human IK window, in the Definitions tab, everything is lit green. In the Controls tab, only three joints are lit green: the feet and the hips/waist. They're the only joints I can move and rotate with the "circle" controllers. The controllers for the remaining joints don't move or rotate at all. Again, I've followed your instructions (they couldn't be any clearer) and I don't think I've missed any of the steps. Any idea as to what could be wrong? Is there a setting I may have missed or a plugin that should be loaded? I'm at a loss. I've spent two days trying to figure this out; have posted the issue on forums (including Maya Autodesk Community) and no one has responded. I'm to the point where I'm about to give up on Quick Rig and do everything manually. ANY assistance would be greatly appreciated, as rigging is what I plan on specialising in once I've finished my education.

[@Autodesk_Maya]

Hi Randy, I just replied to your message on the Autodesk forum. Have a look there!

[@randorific333]

@@Autodesk_Maya THANK YOU! I knew it had to be lack of knowledge. And thank you for the reference. I'll be so glad when I get into a classroom to learn this!! :)

[@Autodesk_Maya]

Randy P My pleasure. And if you’re in this for the long haul, I recommend the complex character rig tutorial on the Maya Learning Channel. I cover a lot of rigging theory in that course that you’ll likely use in school (including IK FK)

[@randorific333]

@@Autodesk_Maya Yes, this will be my career path. I'm not interested in the create aspect of animation. I'm more technical. I'll check it out. I've also purchased a book called "Gray's Anatomy" that I've been told will help tremendously with rigging.

[@jasonzaelit7739]

@@Autodesk_Maya Would you be able to link me to the forum as I am experiencing the same issue? Thanks!

[@crapcrap3551]

excuse me so colouring the area to white means it is more "locked" compair to other parts?

[@laissez-faire496]

Would u recommended that I use the Quick rig tool then add other joints like the fingeres and toes and the IK rigs later?

[@Autodesk_Maya]

That's right. You can actually build just the hand rig from our comprehensive character tutorial and attach it to the arms of a quick rig.

[@truegreen7]

What would be the way for us to go about attaching the hand rig that we made separately, to the arm?

[@ahmedjameel9295]

thank you for the tutorial but what about the hand ? can we do it in quick rig ?

[@Autodesk_Maya]

Unfortunately, you can't rig fingers using quick rig. You can still use HIK for them though, and then add it on top of your quick rig.

[@poohbear4821]

How do you make the wrist twist properly? No way i paint the weights fixes it??

[@Autodesk_Maya]

Are you using the example geometry or your own? It could be that your geometry around the wrists isn't set up well for twisting. You may need to add more subdivisions or change your edge-flow.

[@Dehslash9]

Can you rig the face and hands after the full body auto rig

[@Autodesk_Maya]

Yup. kzbin.info/www/bejne/epzIhZycoKl7n7M&lc=Ugw77EvGpeojSVg4kYR4AaABAg

[@fromdeepitcame]

Thanks this is great. One question, the elbow effectors are moving the hand away from its position, Id expect this be locked in place and the effector to only change the direction of the elbow. Is there a control to activate this?

[@Autodesk_Maya]

In the Character Controls menu, you can switch between Full, partial, and effector-only IK. You'll want to set it to the latter.

[@fromdeepitcame]

@@Autodesk_Maya Great, thanks, Ill give this a try.

[@ahmedalaslemy6026]

HI Where can I get Mental Ray 2017 MAC OS

[@kaywoodparsons1361]

Is the window in meters? And how big is the character?

[@daln13]

Hello, im following your moves but my characters knees go to wrong direction, how can i fix this?

[@Autodesk_Maya]

When adding the knee joints in the t-pose position, try adding them with a bit of a bend already rather than fully straight. This will give the legs a "clue" as to what direction they should bend.

[@kariuszdujawa9058]

@@Autodesk_Maya i have solved it already, but thank you very much for great tutorial!

[@valentinapippia3027]

hey @MayaLearningChannel the link for downloading the model does not work. Please replace it! :(

[@Autodesk_Maya]

Try copy and pasting the link in a new browser instead of clicking it. It’s KZbin that’s causing the issue for some reason.

[@jamesdavis625]

How do you default him to original bind pose? I try Skin > Go to Bind Pose, but it gives me an error, I have the hip joint selected when I try it

[@Autodesk_Maya]

You'll need to use the HumanIK window's "Go to bindpose" button: help.autodesk.com/view/MAYAUL/2022/ENU/?guid=GUID-46964B80-1DEA-49BB-A7CF-0DBA40D9F87F

[@R4L14N]

why do you move the pivot point to the head joint? does that effect skinning somehow?

[@Autodesk_Maya]

I assume you mean for the head_features_grp? It's just to keep the rotations of the group more consistent with the rest of the head. It's not strictly necessary, but it's just cleaner if the head features match those of the control that they're associated with.

[@lilulilu1573]

Obrigado ♥️

[@yelltube]

How do you reset character to the A-Stance after moving joints?

[@Autodesk_Maya]

Unfortunately, Quick Rig and HIK only work with T-Pose. You can press the orange button on the right-side of the Character Setup panel to return to the default.

[@yyg4632]

when i press step by step all the options are not highlighted so i cant use it. and i have to just stop there.

[@pointlesspeanut3182]

you have to select your mesh and click the plus sign in the top right-corner of the quick rig tab

[@krishnaavrilcg1136]

Hey I did the whole body weighting maps, now I exported weight maps and divided head and body seperate to add blendshapes to head, when I try to import weights now, Its not working as expected, does this becoz we made two different meshes??

[@Autodesk_Maya]

Little Black Star Studios Unfortunately yes. While you can change the joint structure, the mesh needs to remain the same (since the weight map is assigned to vertex IDs). However! If you have the original still around, you can actually use a “Transfer Weight Maps” to transfer Skin weights from your original mesh to the new one by distance rather than vertex ID. Just make sure you set it to “closest vertex”.

[@wondertv1356]

Thank you Sir. I have a question. Is there any way to make the paint tool bigger when painting the head??? My paint tool was so small that it took me a long time to paint the head when I use weight tool...

[@Autodesk_Maya]

Hold M and then drag the left or middle mouse button up and down to change the paint brush size.

[@miroslavjandourek650]

Hold B and drag with left button on mouse.

[@АлексейКудрявцев-д2о]

Question. How to use QuickRig to create brushes? Fingers?

[@Autodesk_Maya]

You can actually build just the hand rig from our comprehensive character tutorial and attach it to the arms of a quick rig. kzbin.info/www/bejne/e5fVXmitjNh7gas

[@АлексейКудрявцев-д2о]

Em..... There is a possibility to fix it? prntscr.com/e42dv0

[@ronaldlee5324]

HI, how about create hand joint in quick rig?

[@Autodesk_Maya]

You can actually build just the hand rig from our comprehensive character tutorial and attach it to the arms of a quick rig. kzbin.info/www/bejne/e5fVXmitjNh7gas

[@anthoooo]

the trick with parent constraining the head features isnt working for me? the head features move but they still sink thru the face. is there any thing else i should do besides parent constrain?

[@Autodesk_Maya]

Check the skin weights on the head and make sure they're totally white (color value: 1). What's probably happening is the head skin is moving at a slower rate (default: 0.5) than the facial features.

[@anthoooo]

@@Autodesk_Maya thanks! turns out the skin weights for fine, i just need to check Maintain Offset under the parent constrain. Thank you for this tutorial!

Why quick rig zero out controls? It is very hard to animate it!

[@lamzez94]

I'm missing the option SKIN

[@Autodesk_Maya]

Which version of Maya are you using?

[@Fodd976]

For some reason the quick rig doesn't move the legs do you casually know the answer?

[@Autodesk_Maya]

Check your smooth skinning values for the leg joints. If they're all black, it means they have 0 influence on the skin so you'll need to paint those in.

[@rainbowgunny1]

thanksfull

[@muhamadkarzan3213]

Where can I get this program please? ??

[@claudiaortega6459]

for some reason my rig doesnt parent to my model....

[@Frag_Limit]

Hello anyone, can you please tell me is the quick rig tool not available in the default 2016 edition? I couldn't find the quick rig tool at all in my default maya 20116.

[@Autodesk_Maya]

The Quick Rig tool was introduced in Extension 2. It is not available in the default 2016 edition.

[@frozzytango9927]

How does the Human IK identify which place to put the joints?

[@Autodesk_Maya]

You give it a rough outline using the guides shown early in the video.

[@frozzytango9927]

@@Autodesk_Maya im currently modelling a character, and how it determines where the joins are in my geometry varies depending how i model the character, for example like the knee and elbow joints are place in the right place, but sometimes i do a bit of alteration and then the joints dont appear to be in the same place as before, tends to go further from the knee or elbow of my model. I find that when the HIK decides accurately where the joints placed on the model seem to be a better geometry for rigs.

[@Autodesk_Maya]

@@frozzytango9927 You should generally finish your modeling first before moving to the rigging stage. If anything, you should build the rig based on the model, not the other way around (otherwise everyone would only build the exact same bipedal character).

[@archivradio]

hi there, in the meantime (maya 2018) we can create fingers using auto rigging. help.autodesk.com/view/MAYAUL/2018/ENU//index.html?guid=GUID-3DF80458-E953-4EA8-AE8E-A73627419F1A however, i could not manage to get the fingers into the character description. the hand icon shows a single bone, not the bones for the fingers.

[@Autodesk_Maya]

Although auto-rigging uses HumanIK, they aren't the same thing. Think of auto-rigging as a sort of HumanIK preset. To get fingers, you'll need to set up a proper full HumanIK skeleton.

[@3xRubiks]

What do i need to record my own animation scripts like ubisoft do, they have contacts on bodys and shit, what is this called

[@MaxxFujikawa]

ahah good video!

[@alexrcreamer]

Im trying to figure out when the best time to use this skeleton generator and when I should just create me own skeleton joint by joint? Also, what is motionbuilder and should I get it? Im trying to learn the best ways to create rigs for any character or creature with proper controls and when some ways might be more appropriate than others.

[@Autodesk_Maya]

Assuming skeleton generator = Quick Rigging tool, you'll mainly want to use that for background characters or NPCs (ones that won't be too focused on by the camera or those who won't have overly complex movements). For player characters or hero characters in films, you'll probably want to build a more robust rig. Motionbuilder is a tool that is specially optimized for character animation. It also contains a lot of tools for creating character rigs. The nice thing is that you can transfer rigs made in Maya to Motionbuilder via the FBX file format. It's definitely an excellent tool to have, but you can accomplish most of the same stuff within Maya itself.

[@alexrcreamer]

Got it, thanks. Is motionbuilder sort of the go-to for animation these days?

[@Autodesk_Maya]

For those very serious about character animation specifically, yes.

[@olimszecsody]

Hello! This uick Rig Tool can run in Maya 2009? One more thing! I have a Serious big problem. In August, I started rigging for another character. I was doing very well until the duplication, but when I was almost done, the flexing kinematics had a big problem with the wrist. I fixed it by rigging my right hand with mirroring again, but when I want to connect my right hand, an unknown, unjustified problem appears. maybe a space problem, you don't know. It consists of orienting constraint RightArm_FKConst_GRP and RightArm_ResultConst_GRP to RightArm_ShoulderSpace_LOC after I set the rotate x value to -180, instead of 0 the result, but -360. I don't know something I forgot or I duplicated Shoulder_GRP badly, I don't know. I tried to fix everything, but it didn't work! I've had enough! I tried everything. That's why I turn to you for help. Can you tell me how I can fix it? What did I do wrong. Also how to duplicate. PLEASE! Help me if you can. Thank you in advance.

[@Exsulator2]

I have a similar problem, but with the shoulder instead. If anyone found a solution, I'd love to know about it... Context: Around 15:50 does not explain how one would fix the same issue with multiple orient constraints - consider that offsetting one constraint is fairly easy, but when you constrain multiple locators, they still use the same constraint node - so you can only choose one offset number for ALL of them. Fixing one, breaks another. The 0 - 360 problem also appears in the process. The shoulder locator, having been scaled negative X, is causing this issue to the fk rotation space. Basically, I could flip the group as in the video - but then one of the other orient constraints will get messed up.

[@jeffdronkers6150]

What if my character is bipedal, but with the addition of tentacles on the face. Does this give me the freedom to add these manually to the auto-rig?

[@Autodesk_Maya]

Unfortunately you won't be able to use the Auto-Rigger specifically for those extra tentacles. What you can do is start with a base Auto-rig for the base character, then parent constrain a custom HIK rig for the tentacles on top of that. The auto-rigger was designed as a quick way to get standard bipedal characters up and running quickly.