ik handles help
 

hi there
ok, so i've got better since my last post, but have come up against a brick wall again!
have attached a picture, but:
modelled a mouse, have done the skeleton and skinned it, but now need 2 do ik handles. have followed my university's instructions on how 2 do the legs, which i've done: but now what do i do regards his feet, arms, hands, head, ears, etc?
any help would be appreciated.

Somehow when I download your oicture it is just a big blur...
Regarding the ik handles for your arms, I would think about what sort of movement your character has to perform. And then decide if he needs ik handles in his arms. I did a tutorial from a book (maya 6.0 the complete reference) which gives a (for me) quite advanced tutorial on how to rig a character, especially the arm area.
After doing this I figured tha the ik's in the arms are actually unecessary for what I had to do and where more hindering then helping.
I would not use ik handles for hands and fingers, I would use driven keys to control the finger movement.

hi.
thanks for your advice - but as a beginner i am at a loss as to what driven keys are!
i will try and upload another screen shot that is actually visible!
don't know whether or not to include more ik handles/driven keys on any other parts of the body. i have just tried to animate my mouse to have a go and the legs iks seem to work okish, but leave the body all squished and stretched - why is this and what can i do to rectify it?
many thanks.

hope u can see this picture!

The picture is clear, but as I said it is really up to what kind of motion your character will make wether it needs more ik or not. Personally I would not include ik's in the arms, maybe a spline ik for the spine. For sqishing and stretching the body when moving your legs. You might want to use the paint weight tool which is in the animation tab. It is too complicated to explain here. So i'd suggest you look in the maya help, or do a google search on "maya rigging" or similar.
If you want a good introduction into rigging do the low poly rigging tut. I've done it it surely helps, explains everyting from making the skeleton over ik's spline ik's driven key's, skinning, paint weights and includes a walkcycle. otherwise google is the way