rigging a character in maya.
 

hi, i am creating a character and rigging it and (hopefully) if it ever works animating him.

I am following the official maya2008 animation handbook as a guide and am having probably applying the pole vector constraint to the armIKhandle. As soon as I do this the RotateX of the hand goes to -180 and the rotateZ goes to 1.14. Im not sure why this is or even if i really need a pole vector constraint for effective animation?

any words of advice or wisdom?

would be much appreciated!!

thanks

nige

Nige

Pole vector contraints are useful for elbows and knees.

This is how I use them. First create your joint chain, in the example shown I have created a simple leg. Then create an ikRPsolver from the hip to the ankle. Next I create a locator in front of the knee. Now select the locator and the IK handle and create a Pole Vector contraint. Now click on the locator and move it in the X-axis, hey presto a knee control!

Do the same thing for the arms and you have elbow controls.

If you look closely at the channel box you will see that Pole Vector is highlighted in blue denoting the Pole Vector constraint.

Hope this helps.