1. Creating Hand Control Curves
Step 1
Start
Maya and open the file which was saved in the last part of the tutorial.
Step 2
Create
a circle curve in the side view as shown in the following image.
Step 3
Snap
this curve to the left arm joint as shown in the following image.
Step 4
With
the curve selected, jump in the vertex selection mode and edit its shape as
shown in the following image.
Step 5
Make
a duplicate copy of the circle curve for the right arm joint and snap it on the
joint as shown in the following image.
Step 6
Create
another circle curve for elbow control and snap it on the left elbow joint as shown
in the following image.
Step 7
With
the curve selected, jump in the component selection mode and edit its shape as
shown in the following image.
Step 8
Make
a duplicate copy of the curve and while pressing and holding the V key,
drag it on to the right elbow joint to snap.
Step 9
Create
a cube curve and snap it to the wrist joint for creating hand control.
Step 10
With
the curve selected, jump in the vertex selection mode and edit the vertices as
shown in the following image.
Step 11
Create
one more circle curve and edit it in rectangular shape for wrist twist control as
shown in the following image.
Step 12
Make
duplicate copies of both hand and wrist twist control curves and place them for
the right side joints as shown in the following image.
2. Creating Clavicle Control
Step 1
In
the top view, create a circle curve on the grid as shown in the following image.
Step 2
Jump
in the perspective view and place it around the left clavicle joint. Being in
the vertex selection mode, edit its shape as shown in the following image.
Step 3
With
clavicle curve selected, press and hold
D and V keys to snap to the left side’s arm joint as shown in the
following image.
Step 4
Make
a duplicate copy of the curve and snap it to the right side’s arm joint.
3. Creating Head Control
Step 1
Create
a cube curve and snap it to the head joint as shown in the following image.
Step 2
With
the cube selected, jump in the components selection mode and edit the vertices
of the curve to scale it down as shown in the following image.
4. Deleting History and Freezing Controls
Step 1
Select
all control curves.
Step 2
With
the curves selected, go to Edit >
Delete by Type > History command to delete the history.
Step 3
With
the curves selected, go to Modify >
Freeze Transformations to freeze all
transform values and reset the initial values to 0.
5. Creating Elbow Control
Step 1
Jump
in the front view and create a circle curve as shown in the following image.
Step 2
Jump
in the component selection mode to edit the vertices of the curve as shown in
the following image.
Step 3
With
the curve selected, press and hold D
and V keys to snap to elbow joint as
shown in the following image.
Step 4
Make
a duplicate copy of the curve and snap it to the right side’s elbow joint as
shown in the following image.
Step 5
With
both elbow control curves selected, go to Edit
> Delete by Type > History command to delete the history.
Step 6
With
the same elbow control curves selected go to Modify > Freeze Transformations
to freeze all transform values and reset the initial values to 0.
Step 7
For
identification purpose, set the color of right side’s controls to green and
left side’s controls to red.
Step 8
Rename
all left controls as L_FK_Arm_control01,
L_FK_Elbow_control01, L_Hand_control01, L_FK_Wrist_control01, L_Clavicle_control01,
and L_Elbow_Control01. Rename all right controls as R_FK_Arm_control01, R_FK_Elbow_control01, R_Hand_control01, R_FK_Wrist_control01, R_Clavicle_control01
and R_Elbow_Control01.
Step 9
Hence
all control curves have been completed and ready for linking, applying
constraints and parenting.
6. Applying Constrain
Step 1
First
of all, hide the body and other meshes as well. Turn off these layers in the Layer
Editor panel.
Step 2
With
L_Hand_control01 selected, press and
hold Shift key and then select L_Hand_IK_01
as shown in the following image.
Step 3
With
both hand controls and Ik selected, go to Constrain
> Point and click on the
option box.
Step 4
In
the Point Constrain Options window, turn on Maintain offset check box and then click on Add button.
Step 5
With
L_Clavicle_control01 and L_Clavicle_IK_01 selected, go to Constrain > Point constrain command.
Step 6
With
L_Elbow_Control01 and L_Hand_IK_01 selected, go to Constrain > Pole Vector constrain command.
Step 7
With
L_FK_Wrist_control01 and L_wrist_jnt01 selected, go to Constrain > Orient and click on the option box.
Step 8
In
the Orient Constraint Options window, turn on Maintain offset check box and then click on Add button.
7. Applying Expression
Step 1
For
applying expression, select L_wristTwist_jnt01
and go to Window > Animation Editors > Expression Editor.
Step 2
In
the Expression Editor window, select
L_wristTwist_jnt01 in Objects
group and select rotateX in Attributes group. In the Expression
text box, write the expression as L_wristTwist_jnt01.rotateX = L_FK_Wrist_control01.rotateX*0.8; and
then click on Create
button to apply.
8. Creating Custom Attributes
Step 1
With
L_FK_Wrist_control01 selected, go to
Modify > Add Attributes command.
Step 2
In
the Add Attribute window, write IKFKSwitch as the Long name and
set the values of Minimum, Maximum and Default to 0,
1, and 0 respectively and then click on OK button.
Step 3
Now,
you can see the IKFKSwitch attribute has been added in the channel
editor.
Step 4
In
the same way, with L_FK_Wrist_control01
selected, open the Add Attribute window and write Thumb as the Long name and set the values of Minimum,
Maximum and Default to -5, 10, and 0
respectively and then click on Add button.
Step 5
Following
the same way and with L_FK_Wrist_control01
selected, open the Add Attribute window and write Index as the Long name and set the values of Minimum,
Maximum and Default to -5, 10, and 0
respectively and then click on Add button.
Step 6
Following
the same way and with L_FK_Wrist_control01
selected, open the Add Attribute window and write Middle as the Long name and set the values of Minimum,
Maximum and Default to -5, 10, and 0
respectively and then click on Add button.
Step 7
Following
the same way and with L_FK_Wrist_control01
selected, open the Add Attribute window and write Ring as the Long name and set the values of Minimum,
Maximum and Default to -5, 10, and 0
respectively and then click on Add button.
Step 8
Following
the same way and with L_FK_Wrist_control01
selected, open the Add Attribute window and write Pinky as the Long name and set the values of Minimum,
Maximum and Default to -5, 10, and 0
respectively and then click on Add button.
Step 9
In
this way, the custom attributes of the various controls have been created. To
edit the values, you can go to Modify
> Edit Attributes command
to open the attributes editor window.
Step 10
In
the Edit Attributes window, you can select any desired custom attribute
and then change its name and value.
Step 11
For
instance, select Index custom
attribute and then turn its New name to Index Finger and press the Enter key to apply the changes.
Step 12
Following
the same way, rename all fingers name as shown in the following image.
Step 13
With R_Hand_control01 and
R_Hand_IK_01 selected, go to Constrain > Point constrain
command.
Step 14
With R_Clavicle_control01 and
R_Clavicle_IK_01 selected, go to Constrain > Point constrain
command.
Step 15
With R_Elbow_Control01 and R_Hand_IK_01
selected, go to Constrain > Pole Vector
constrain command.
Step 16
With R_FK_Wrist_control01 and R_wrist_jnt01 selected, go to Constrain > Orient constrain
command.
Step 17
For
applying expression, select R_wristTwist_jnt01
and then go to Window > Animation Editors > Expression Editor.
Step 18
In the Expression Editor window,
select R_wristTwist_jnt01 in
Objects group and rotateX in the Attributes group. In the Expression text box, write the expression as R_wristTwist_jnt01.rotateX = R_FK_Wrist_control01.rotateX*0.8; and
then click on Create
button to apply.
Step 18
In
this way, the controls for left and right hands
are completed. In the next part of the tutorial, I will show how to create the controls for the fingers and IKFK Switch.
Conclusion
In the next part of the tutorial, I’ll show you how to create fingers’ controls and IKFK switch.
{excerpt}
Read More