sm mech tutorial (modeling) - Page 4 - Simply Maya User Community

# 46 16-10-2007 , 10:01 AM

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Thanks. I’m not the best at rigging, so can you please explain what you mean a little better?

Sure, I'll give it a shot.

As your right leg moves forward, your right hip also moves forward as your torso moves forward, while your left foot remains planted and the pelvis at the leg joint moves back relative to your torso.

I drew a really crude diagram trying to show what I meant. My tablet is on the fritz so I had to draw with the mouse, so it's a pretty sad sketch. :p

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Last edited by ctbram; 16-10-2007 at 12:33 PM.

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# 47 16-10-2007 , 04:07 PM

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No, I’m not getting anything like that. How did you rig yours?

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# 48 16-10-2007 , 04:17 PM

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ctbram i sent you email from your website

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# 49 16-10-2007 , 07:56 PM

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No, I’m not getting anything like that. How did you rig yours?

I have not started to rig yet. It just seemed from some of the poses that there may have been some rotation at the hip joint and I wanted to be sure I did not have to rebuild those areas on mine before I started the rigging process.

regards,
RM

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# 50 16-10-2007 , 08:01 PM

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If you want some rigging tuts, check this out:

https://forums.simplymaya.com/showthr...&postid=245249

After you register and everything, look for the Walker project. It’s not perfect for the Assault Mech, but it is some pretty good training.
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# 51 16-10-2007 , 08:18 PM

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Thanks Jr. I signed up. user added image

By the way I in that piston rigging demo I did for the 3dp mech, I could make a short video of how I did it and post it here if you want.

I also have the .ma file for the rig on my web page. It's actually pretty simple. I just added a locator and parent it to the center of the outter part of the piston and use an aim constraint to keep the inner part pointed at the locator.

Rick

Last edited by ctbram; 16-10-2007 at 08:21 PM.

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# 52 17-10-2007 , 03:35 PM

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Originally posted by ctbram
By the way I in that piston rigging demo I did for the 3dp mech, I could make a short video of how I did it and post it here if you want.

Originally Posted by

Sounds good to me. user added image

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# 53 21-10-2007 , 07:31 AM

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I am having some trouble rigging the leg on this mech.

The aim constraint trick of having the cylinders always point at the pistons and visa versa using aim constraints is not cooperating with parenting to the joints.

If I set aim constraints and try to use rig B (pictured below) the pistons and cyclinders go all wonkers when I try to bind them to the joints.

If I go with rig A then I have no ability to control the piston/cylinder assembly at all.

So I am stuck.

I built a simpler verion of the leg for experimenting. Here is a screen shot with some notes scribbled on it....

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Last edited by ctbram; 21-10-2007 at 07:33 AM.

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# 54 21-10-2007 , 08:17 AM

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Could you not use a SDK of some sort to control the movement of the pistons based on the IK movement of the leg? so as the foot rises it changes a Piston compression attribute that you've made?

As ive never done anything like this i'm not too sure but it might be worth a go?

"No pressure, no diamonds" Thomas Carlyle

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# 55 21-10-2007 , 10:35 AM

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Yep gster, That is the approach I am currently looking into. I still have to figure how to rig the joints to allow the piston to compress and I have to figure out how to create an SDK function.

I am pretty much swimming in untested waters as this is the first time I have ever really departed from purely modeling.

I am pretty happy that I finally figured out how to uv unwrap and texture something. I was hoping to actually be able to rig and pose or even possibly animate it.

Now that I can texture my work I figure I may as well learn how to pose it so it does not look like is is about to fall over.

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# 56 23-10-2007 , 05:52 PM

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Okay I need some hand holding to solve this one.

I cannot for the life of me figure how to set of an SDK soloution for this problem.

If I try using aim constraints the cylinders and piston fly apart as soon as I try to parent them to a bone or joint.

If I try to use an SDK then there is a problem when I try to move the pistons relative to the cyclinder while they are bound to bones.

I don't know how to rig this.

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# 57 04-11-2007 , 12:15 PM

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Originally posted by ctbram
Okay I need some hand holding to solve this one.

I cannot for the life of me figure how to set of an SDK soloution for this problem.

If I try using aim constraints the cylinders and piston fly apart as soon as I try to parent them to a bone or joint.

If I try to use an SDK then there is a problem when I try to move the pistons relative to the cyclinder while they are bound to bones.

I don't know how to rig this.

Originally Posted by

I'm not sure I quite get where you were noticing the problems. At the point that the cylinder and piston fly apart, have you attached the model to the bones?

If so, have you painted weights onto the mesh? I can't say I've done much with mayas rigging system yet, nor anything like what you are doing but I do know from experience that such issues can be caused by either a faulty rigg, or improper weights/influences.

When you set up the rig with the model skinned to the bones, you almost definately have pieces on the leg, most specifically the piston which are influenced by the movement of the "knee" and the joint which would be protruding from infront of the piston. When you try to move those, any influence they have on the piston could cause some nasty issues.

I'm probably butchering this explanation, if you want to chat on msn or want to pick apart what i've tried to explain, please let me know!

Peace, love and Anarchy~~~~~~~
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