max8 rigging tutorials

[joconnell]

Yeah abolutely, the new file would make evrything handier - I'll give you a run through of how to rig a leg the way you want it. What you are getting here is ik pop which is where the joint gets to its limits. You can set up a few things for this, one being a cap on the distance that your foot can travel from the hip so that it never gets to 180 degrees to cause the pop.

The new joint will give you a lot more flexibility in the way you do things in terms of aniamtion. I'll be on msn later this evening and I'll talk you through some bits.

[roppin]

please. I´d be happy to see it.

[roppin]

flipside. you got a pm.

I´m still a fan of a ball joint. it will help him keep his balance

[joconnell]

Indeed - or some kind of ball pivot between his hips and his head / upper body so you can do ed-209 walk cycles

[Repenseks]

Hi guys,
i found some very interesting video tuts, worth downloading:
http://www.3d-palace.com/

Regards
Srdjan

[flipside]

Hey all thanks for all the replies!

Roppin & joconnell, thank you very much for the scene files!! You produced very similar setups, proving that it was a matter of properly linking it together. I feel stupid I didn't think of that myself

What you are getting here is ik pop which is where the joint gets to its limits. You can set up a few things for this, one being a cap on the distance that your foot can travel from the hip so that it never gets to 180 degrees to cause the pop.

Still interested in this I made it walk, but had great difficulty in adjusting the body movement vs position & rotation of the feet in order to prevent that 'popping'.

[joconnell]

Absolutely - the main way to do it is to either use a stretchy limb in the case of organic characters or limit the distance that the foot and hip can be apart which can be done with an expression or script controller on the foot helper.

The main thing to look at is the type of joints you need for the range of movement that you want and see what the minimum controls are to give you all the control you need. It might be worth revising your character again so that he has a defined object for the hips, a seperate head object and a flexible spine in the middle. Possibly even a ball joint at the hips to give him a full range of movement too.

[roppin]

glad you find it helpfull flipside.
Joconnell: Can I have a look at your rig? Could be interesting for me to see how you set it up I can send you a link to mine if you like...

[joconnell]

Chucked you a pm of that - I'll be doing a few more rigging bits in the next while too - Will have to get your opinions

[roppin]

Thank you! the flipping of toes was nice!

@ flippside: about the "popping". I don´t care that much about popping and stuff because I tend to go over the animation a several times anyway as for one you can see in my setup that if you drag the head bone away he will loos his feets (much niser in Joconnell´s setup) anyway I don´t care that much fore a nother automatic funktion in my characters as it allso tend to limit them. I´m not that experienced though. and I know there is a limit controler in max 8 that can be handy check that out. guess it´s a kind of expression. I have seen some verry cool riggs for max though. where the feets were allways on the ground with some kind of ray expression so the rigg could walk the stairs! was verry cool!