Rigging the desk lamp in Maya

A catch up tutorial for my students in IADT.
00:00 Intro
00:35 Preparations
01:30 Joint Tool
03:03 Parenting shapes to joints
04:23 IK Handle Tool
05:39 Animation controls
07:50 Parenting the rig to the animation controls
09:36 Setting Pole Vector Constraint
10:00 Hiding the IK Handle
10:36 Setting a Layer for non-selectable objects

[@emilynalexandrabolivarlimo794]

I´ve been driving crazy trying to find an easy and simple tutorial of how to Rig a mechanical arm! after wasting so much time I finally found this one, and It helped me a LOT!!! finally something easy and understandable!!!! amazing!!! thank you!!!!

[@dwainehiggins4451]

Great vid! *crosses fingers to await possibly future, advanced rigging videos*

[@royalspartan9]

Thank you sir, I really appreciate you clearly putting the hotkeys in too. That made things much simpler!

[@unajoppie9881]

Rigging seems very difficult to me, but your tutorial helped me a lot! I appreciate it with all my heart :)

[@JuanCarlos-qj8rr]

Thanks sr, I like how you explain and hoy easy it is to understand, I hope you continue to uploading videos of more rigging objects and animations, It would help me a lot! greetings from Mexico

[@indianeinstein1978]

very nice idea and clear explanation. and calm voice too !! thanks

[@o-yunorachang9121]

Thank you very much! If not have this tutorial,I can't finish my Maya homework!thanks

[@tjgregorio1767]

Thank you so much for this tutorial, all working very well...thank you!

[@victoriamarilyn]

I loved this tutorial! Thank you!

[@Ben-gm3tb]

super useful and clear thanks helped a lot for my project

[@anilchauhan2145]

thats superb Sir ,,,Very nice tutorial

[@litote9]

Short and to the point. Thanks.

[@moali5153]

yah it,s very brief and useful lesson .. I'm very grateful to you.

[@14hil81]

Very useful tutorial for beginners thanks a lot

[@dewdew895]

Thank you for the tut and your clear english! :)

[@RizuTheCatLady]

Best tutorial ever!!!

[@darkvoid9131]

Great tutorial, thank you!

[@Rathemighty]

Fantastic! Thank you so much!

[@bangaloredestinyrider3885]

Thank you so much for the video it's help me lot

[@davidhallows2389]

Just what I needed, ta.

[@bambi8485]

Good tutorial to learn maya and English hahaha ：) Thank you

[@LukeHan2001]

Thanks for the help!

[@popogudiya5649]

very nice......love it

[@EdwinDeTacos]

thank you so much!

[@curlyt8198]

Thank you very much sir 🙂😍

[@yogeshprince8488]

thank you, bro :)

[@alaslipknot]

Thank you!

[@yuralaskevich2023]

Thanks, very good

[@ovi7051]

thank you so much sir ........

[@suzanneVD0203]

tthhhaaaankkkk yyooouu :D helped so much

[@LeftoverAtoms]

Well I feel very dumb now, it was that simple to do this.

[@vazak11]

Cool!

[@SuperKelebek]

perfect

[@KaleNiranjan]

Is there an advantage to parenting the mesh to the joints instead of skinning (smooth bind) in this particular example ?

[@artSqoolType]

Yes, I would parent instead of binding anything that is not meant to bend or deform. Like in a character head I would bind the head mesh but parent eyeballs and teeth. Parenting (or using constraints) is simpler and it can even make your scene play back smoother.

[@stevenross5342]

Is it best practice to Always (In every case) Freeze Transformations/Delete History once you've finished modeling and moving onto rigging?

[@artSqoolType]

Delete History yes, Freeze Transformations in almost every case!

[@ave1996]

Can I use this to rig a spring, with a hook on the tip, that can also be rig?

[@artSqoolType]

The springs would require a more complicated setup, I needed to keep this one simple!

[@3dvfxanimator729]

What to do with Joint 4.? We unparent it when we moved all head parts into head controls.?

[@artSqoolType]

Joint4 becomes obsolete in this simplified example. Usually I would orient constraint joint4 to the head control (instead of movng the objects into head control).

[@filipcvetanovski3233]

how do you select objects with joints like i cant do that?

[@averysaltyperson7290]

This is a really good tutorial! Ive had a bit of trouble on the IK handle section, it keeps comming up with '// Error: No valid items were selected. Must be joints, effectors, or nurbs curves.' and I haven't found any info on how to fix it. Is there a fix for this?

[@artSqoolType]

Not sure, but make sure that when you have selected the IK Handle tool you click on joints. It may be easier to do in the persp view than in side or front view.

[@SofiYTVideos]

Hi! so like i made the joints like on the tutorial on my model, but when i select them only the joints move and not the whole object

[@artSqoolType]

Hi, did you parent the pieces of the model to the joints?

[@Ryzawing]

@@artSqoolType I'm not the same guy but I have the same issue - parenting or binding skin doesn't make them move, just the joints.. i should note that this is using 1 object rather than multiple

[@artSqoolType]

It's hard to say why it's not working. Are you sure you parented in the right order: select object, shift-select joint and press P ?

[@columbaespitia4695]

El examen de Chuy en LAD x)

[@SimonK91]

Being new in maya, I would've probably chosen parent constraint rather than directly parenting the object to the joints.

[@artSqoolType]

I'm keeping things simple by directly parenting. Parent Constraint is a more refined way and can be better for a more complicated rig.

[@ave1996]

How do you limit the transformation of those circles of you parent the joints and ik?

[@artSqoolType]

What would you like to limit?

[@ave1996]

For example, I want to limit the rotation of the head of that desk lamp or if I pull it down it will not go beyond the base stand. Something like that. Because I saw some videos using a sider control with min and max value. May be it’s just the same?

[@artSqoolType]

You can give attributes min/max limits in Attribute Editor, but it's a simple value limit, for making the lamp head not go beyond the base would need a more complex setup. Generally I don't do this as I may be limiting the animation in some cases by such setup.

[@ave1996]

@@artSqoolType Thanks... I learned in this tutorial...

[@labu_e-sports]

why didnt you used skinning process instead of parenting joint directly to object?

[@artSqoolType]

Skinning is good for objects that bend or stretch, but it's a more complicated approach and can even slow down playback. Solid objects like these don't need it.

[@sanketbagwe945]

Sir where I get this file of lamp?

[@artSqoolType]

Unfortunately you'll just have to make it :)

[@bankruptcybarrel]

When I attempt to link the twist target and the ikHandle, it gives me an error code that the twist target is not valid. What do I do?

[@artSqoolType]

Did you first select twist target, then shift-select ikHandle?

[@bankruptcybarrel]

teemuAuersaloDotCom I got it working! I tried shift select a few times but it was selecting more than just the IKHandle; it was selecting the lampshade and bulb. I ended up realising to select it I had to use CTRL-Select. Thank you!

[@artSqoolType]

Great. It can be confusing: in the Outliner you would ctrl-select, in the viewport shift-select.