The most commonly sought-after skill in an animator besides animation skill is rigging knowledge. This is because animators with a little bit of awareness of the techniques behind the controls can solve production problems on the fly.

Rig Testing

L ET'S FIRST RUN THROUGH a few of the things you should identify in your rigs before you start working with them.

In an ideal production setting, you are given enough time to test your rigs before you have to animate shots. This is in an ideal setting. Not very many productions are ideal! Schedules sometimes demand that you are producing work on day 1. When the deadlines are that tight, we need to have a quick list of things to check to make sure our rigs are going to behave how we want them to.

Some of these cheats will reveal characteristics about a rig that aren't necessarily indications that the rig is broken or low quality. These characteristics might include scaling breaking after a certain point, IK/FK switch channels being on the same control that you are using for posing, or proxy meshes hidden in the rig. It would be quite a shame if you completed a shot using a new rig only to see later on that an attribute or parameter was set incorrectly.

Since all rigs are slightly different, the locations, names, and even geometry type of the controls we point out in the following cheats may not be the same in your production rigs. However, there is a certain amount of standardization inherent in rigging, and we'll expect you can always find the “IK hand controller” or the “FK head controller” no matter what character you're working with. To get used to this, in this chapter we'll use the semi-standardized names to describe the rigs.

1 Open Groggy_Test.ma. We're going to test two things right now: controller symmetry, and controller object space.

2 Select his IK hand controllers, his IK feet controllers, and his IK pelvis controller. The first thing you want to check is that all of the controllers move in the same world space, and that they are symmetrical.

3 Set a key on frame 1 with the controllers in place. On frame 40, move the controllers forward in world space substantially different from that of his master controller.

4 Now we check if the controllers are in world space. With the controllers still selected, open the Graph Editor. Uh oh. Look at all of the different translations on these controllers!

If you look closely, the arm's object space is not aligned with the feet or the pelvis. What this means is we need to be careful when we are posing the character, especially in cycles, because this rig was not set up with “FORWARD” being represented by only the Translate Z channel. Below, you can see that if we move the controllers in the Z channel alone, the results are totally unpredictable. This rig would be very unwieldy if we used IK arms in a walk cycle. If you must use this character with arms in IK mode, then it's easiest to pose the character using “WORLD” translation mode by holding down and LMB dragging to the left on the marking menu that appears. Also, the infinity curve type will be “cycle with offset” for all three translation channels (not just Z as it would be normally) for a character like this. More on that in Chapter 9 on cycles.

Groggy_Test.ma

You can also check in the Channel Box to see if all world controllers are moving in world space by moving them, and then selecting each individually and seeing if the values change.

RIGS CAN HAVE IDIOSYNCRASIES that you come to learn over time. We took a look at the Groggy rig in the last section and found that IK arms will require us to have a few extra steps to make our cycles perfect (again, more on that in the “Stride Length” section in Chapter 9). There are many reasons that rigs have different characteristics, though. Different proportions, the rigging pose, and the general use for the rig (some rigs are designed to be able to blend mocap data into a robust control system, for example). But there ARE a few things that pretty much all rigs should have under control, pun intended.

The first is that setting all of the controller's attributes to zero, or “zeroing,” puts the rig back into the initial pose. This is vitally important for avoiding gimbal lock while animating; it is important for dealing with animation curves while you are polishing your scene; and it is vitally important for creating cycles with a set stride length.

The second requirement is that animation can be copied and pasted on the rig. With most rigs, this works fine. However, sometimes rigs have very complex hierarchies filled with connections and nested constraints that mean that your animation is not copied perfectly. We'll try both animExport and good ol’ Copy Keys to get to the bottom of this.

While many of the quirks of a rig are workable, such as the slightly different object space on Groggy's IK hands, some things are show stoppers. Let's see how this rig stacks up on these two essential issues.

1 Open Groggy_Zero.ma. See how Groggy is in a pose? Let's try “zeroing” him out. Drag a selection around his whole rig to choose all of his controls.

2 Now let's open the Attribute Spreadsheet. This is a very under-utilized panel in Maya. It displays in spreadsheet format ALL of the attributes for the selected objects. Nice!

3 Now to zero all of the controls back to their origins, we're going to select all of the Translate and Rotate Columns. LMB click and drag across the very top of the Attribute Spreadsheet, selecting all six columns.

4 Now just type 0. But don't press yet. You'll see Maya automatically puts the zero in the upper right cell when you have selected multiple cells, rows, or columns.

5 Now press . Groggy passes the test! He snaps right back to his initial pose. This is great.

6 We only zeroed his Translate and Rotate channels. If there were other channels (IK switches, foot roll, etc.) you would have to find them in the All Keyable tab of the Attribute Spreadsheet.

Groggy_Zero.ma

The Attribute Spreadsheet is very underutilized. Spend some time making changes to multiple cells by shift selecting them, or by dragging a selection box on an area and typing in values.

1 Open Groggy_Copy.ma. This is a completed animation scene; but what do we do if we need to copy the animation onto another rig? We're going to show you the normal way with animExport, and a great cheat using Copy Keys that works even faster.

2 First we need to enable the animExport plugin. Go to Window > Settings/Preferences > Plug-in Manager. Find animImportExport.mll and check both the Loaded and Auto Load boxes.

3 Now in the outliner, select the animated Groggy's rig group node, Groggy:root_group Go to File > Export Selected. In the Export dialogue, change the type to animExport and leave everything default, except change Hirearchy to Below. Name the file groggy_Anim.

4 Now we'll import that animation onto the static Groggy rig. Select his main rig group, groggy1:root_Group. Go to File > Import. Make sure the file type is set to animImport, and copy the rest of the settings circled above. The animation copies perfectly.

5 Let's try this using just the clipboard. This is much quicker and useful if you don't need to save the animation, just copy it fast. (Very common if there's a rig update in production.) Open Groggy_Copy.ma again and select Groggy:root_group in the outliner.

6 Go to Edit > Keys > Copy Keys . This dialogue is the same as the animExport dialogue, because what you are doing is the same, except you are only copying keys to the clipboard and not saving them for later. Copy the settings above.

7 When you press the Copy Keys button, the script editor returns “//Result: 281” in the Command Line. That means 281 curves were copied to the clipboard. Now select the static Groggy's rig group groggy1:root_Group.

8 Go to Edit > Keys > Paste Keys . Copy my settings above and hit Paste Keys. Beautiful. The curves in the clipboard are pasted onto Groggy and he moves as expected. This is extremely useful if Replace Reference does not work and you need to copy animation onto a new rig!

Groggy_Copy.ma

At its core, Maya handles animExport and Copy Keys the same way. One just writes a file and the other stores it in your clipboard. The nice thing about Copy Keys is you don't have to hunt for the saved file, AND, you can copy keys from one scene and open another scene to paste them into – Maya keeps the curves in the clipboard.

Sprucing It Up

O NE OF THE BEST WAYS to cheat in animation is to take advantage of the fact that Maya interpolates motion for you. For example, in 2D animation done for TV, it is still typical for the animation to be done on “2s” – every other frame is held for two frames, giving you effectively 12 frames per second instead of the normal 24. Well, this looks choppy to the well-trained eye. In 3D, unless we are using stepped mode, there will ALWAYS be motion on every frame. When people say “on 2s” in Maya, what they mean is they have set key poses every two frames – but there is still motion on every frame.

The way we can cheat using this property of 3D is to “spruce up” a rig with some dynamic objects. We can get away with using far fewer poses and less movement, because the dynamic objects will be constantly moving. It will take away the choppy feeling and make it look like the “world” in which the character is living is smooth and continuous, even with staccato movement in the character itself.

We're going to take a scene that has VERY crude animation on Moom, and add a ponytail and earrings using two very different dynamic methods. You will then see, when we play back the animation, that the scene has taken on a more dynamic quality. The mere addition of these dynamic objects and the secondary motion they create helps us cheat the animation. When you are on extremely tight deadlines and can only afford the time to set a few key poses in a shot, this cheat will save you.

1 Open moom_Dynamics_Start.ma. I've done a lot of the work for you by setting up the earring and ponytail geometry and starting the process of creating the dynamics objects.

2 Let's first create the ponytail dynamics. We're going to use a simple hair curve and wrap the geo to it. Switch to the Side View and draw a nurbs curve through the ponytail using the EP curve tool.

3 Now select Moom's head control, and shift select the new curve you created. Hit F2 to bring up the Animation menu set, and choose Constrain > Parent. Hit F5 to switch to the Dynamics menu set for the next step.

4 Select the curve and go to nHair > Make Selected Curves Dynamic. In the Attribute editor under the dynamics Tab of hairSystemShape1, change Bend Resistance to 10. Select follicleShape1 in the Outliner in the hairSystem1Follicles group, and change the Point Lock attribute to Base.

5 On frame 1, select the ponytail mesh. In the Outliner, find the newly created hairSystem1OutputCurves group. Curve2 inside is the result of the dynamics applied to curve1 that you created. click curve2.

6 Hit F2 to bring up the Animation menu set again and go to Create Deformers > Wrap. Press play and see the ponytail whipping back and forth. See how the scene has a sense of fluidity even though the animation is really rough? You cheater you.

moom_Dynamics_Start.ma
moom_Dynamics_Finish.ma

Depending on your computer performance, you may not be able to watch the dynamics play at speed. Maya solves dynamics in real time, so normally every frame must play. To watch complex dynamics or to watch on a slower machine, change your playback to Every Frame in the Time slider preferences.

1 Hair curves are a quick solution but are not ideal for meshes that shouldn't deform. We're going to use rigid bodies to make the earrings dynamic. On frame 1 select the head control, select the top of the earring, and go Constrain > Parent.

2 Now let's make the two other spheres rigid bodies. Select both of them, and hit F5 to switch to dynamics. Go to Soft/Rigid Bodies > Create Active Rigid Body. With both of them still selected, click on Fields > Gravity.

3 We need to set up these spheres to move with each other. The Nail Constraint is perfect for this. Select the bottom sphere and go to Soft/Rigid Bodies > Create Nail Constraint.

4 Move the new Nail Constraint to the bottom of the middle sphere, select the middle sphere and hit to parent it. Now repeat the last two steps for the middle sphere, creating a Nail Constraint and then parenting it to the top sphere.

5 There are a few settings we need to change to make the earrings move correctly. First in the rigidBody1 tab, with the bottom sphere selected, find the Rigid Body Attributes section and change Damping to 5.

6 Next, scroll down in the attribute editor to find the Performance Attributes section. Turn off collisions. Select the middle sphere, navigate to the rigidBody2 tab and repeat the last two steps.

7 Select gravityField1 in the outliner and change the Magnitude attribute to 7.

8 Now hit the play button! Watch how the ponytail flops around with the head movement, and how the earrings swing nicely from Moom's ears. As crude as the motion is in the scene, there's something soothing to the eye to see nice smooth dynamic movement.

moom_Dynamics_Start.ma
moom_Dynamics_Finish.ma

The Nail Constraint is the perfect dynamic constraint for swinging objects like earrings. There are many other types of dynamic constraints and I encourage you to try them all. Hinge Constraints are like Nail Constraints but they only rotate on one axis, and Spring Constraints are like Nail Constraints but they stretch!

Visual Switches

ADDING SWITCHES TO YOUR PANEL is a great way to cheat the normal method of having to select hidden controls and adjust multiple channels. It can be cumbersome, unintuitive, and simply take much longer to hunt down the right channel when working with switches. Let's simplify this whole process and give you a simple, easy-to-use, easy-to-read switch that you control in panel. Once again I've done a lot of the work for you, by creating the switch and output nodes you'll need to hook this into any IK/FK system. In fact, you can actually use the files included in this cheat with any rig and in any scene you are working on in production; I'll show you how.

This cheat assumes that you do all of your switching across one frame. Although the issue of single-frame switching or multi-frame switching is still out to jury, this cheat more than makes up for the advantages of switching across multiple frames with the visual feedback you get.

We'll first import the switch and familiarize ourselves with its control. We'll then constrain it to the wrist of our character and hook up the correct channels. Then we'll create some animation on the arm and practice switching using our new switch. You'll be amazed how nice it is to have the visual feedback on your FK/IK switches, and I'm sure you'll be applying this cheat to all of your rigs in the future.

1 Open goon_Switch.ma. Here we see Goon with his arm out, ready for our handy little switch to be added to his rig. Go to File > Import and choose switch.ma. The switch will load into the scene at the world origin.

2 In the outliner, select switchGroup and in the panel move the group to be up somewhere near his left wrist. Scale the group down a bit to be a nice size.

3 Let's first constrain the control to the wrist bone, so that it moves with the wrist regardless of which system is being used. Select the joint in his forearm, LowerArm_Left, select the switchGroup in the outliner, hit F2 to switch to Animation, and click on Constrain > Parent.

4 Now we hook up the switch. Select the nurbs circle switchCtrl. In the Attribute Editor (+) switch to the remapValue1 tab and hit Select at the bottom of the Attribute Editor.

5 Go to Window > General Editors > Connection editor. The left column will already have your remapValue node's attributes loaded. Select Goon's Hand_Left_CTRL in the panel, and in the connection editor, hit Reload Right, at the top.

6 In the left column, select outValue. In the right column, scroll down until you find ik_Weight, and select it. These two attributes are now connected. Move the arm a bit and test it out! Your switch now changes the arm control system from FK to IK, and does so in a very visual way.

goon_Switch.ma
goon_Switch_End.ma

The remapValue node changes one value range into another with less scene overhead than expressions, or driven keys. I chose “None” for interpolation in the remapValue node because I want to change immediately between FK and IK, but the other interpolation types give you very detailed control over the blending. Open it up and see for yourself.

Holding Your Own

by Kenny Roy

IN TODAY'S ANIMATION MARKET, there is a high probability you will be working at small to mid-sized studios for the majority of your career. simply put, even if you had all of the animator positions at the top ten animation and visual effects studios in the world (Pixar, ILM, etc.) put together you are still only talking about 1000 or so jobs. this is not meant to discourage you from trying to be an animator at the top studios in the world, rather to prepare you for the career opportunities you WILL have.

It is undeniable that animation is the CG task that requires specialization above all others. Animation combines the most technique with the most artistry in CG. modelers and lighters might complain at this statement, but it's true. All you have to do is look at the salaries and you'll see that animators do the best out of all CG artists. the reason I'm bringing this up is because you are presumably on your way to becoming a marketable animator in the animation industry, ergo you are specializing. But while your supervisors and producers are hardly ever going to call on the modelers to pitch in on animation, in both slow times and crunch times animators are often called upon to pitch in on other tasks.

How do you know if you know enough about the other disciplines of CG to not be a burden when the deadline looms? I'll tell you here, in this short guide. I'll list the disciplines and then a good minimum amount of knowledge you should have regarding each one.

Design, Storyboards - Drawing skill is coming back in style. In the early days of CG it was enough if you could “learn the computer.” now many art students take up the mouse and can draw amazingly as well. keep a sketchpad with you at all times, because stick figures won't cut it.

Modeling - You should know your way around a model, be able to fix problems like open edges, five-sided faces, asymmetry, flipped normals, etc. you should understand how pivot relates to blendshapes and bind pose. you should be able to model (cleanly) simple objects and props.

UV/Texturing - You might not have the best techniques for laying out UVs, but you should know a problem when you see it, like overlapping UVs or UVs outside the normalized range. Be able to switch UV sets and apply textures to different sets. Be able to load textures and assign them to materials.

Materials/Shading - Know the difference between the common material types. Be able to create some simple shader looks like glossy plastic, matte paper, a mirror, and skin. not necessarily final materials, but enough that if the production is in a pinch, the client won't freak out when they see your materials as placeholders.

Rigging - Know how to rig props correctly, with a controller, pivots centered on the origin, geometry with no history, clean hierarchies, and frozen transforms. know how to diagnose common rig problems, including double transforms, weighting issues, poor rotation order selection. know all of the common rig properties that will lead to difficulties in animation, like the ones described in this chapter regarding controller symmetry and object space.

Lighting - Know how to place and choose simple lighting setups. know how to create shadow-mapped or raytraced shadows. know how to place objects and lights into render layers.

Rendering - Understand common file formats and common output dimensions for TV and film. Understand the different renderers and their qualities. Be able to set up a scene to batch render with the correct output path.

Compositing - Know what an alpha channel is and how to make a garbage matte for use in your maya scenes. know generally what the different blending modes (multiply, screen, for example) will produce when compositing layers.

I know this list seems long. And while you will definitely get a job as an animator without knowing any of these skills, it is better to know these things than to be clueless when your studio needs help on the spot. All of the things I mentioned above are easily researched and learned through the maya help, online forums, and other training resources readily available to those who want to learn. As animators we need to have a few more skills in our wheelhouse because when a deadline quickly approaches, you do not want to be seen as the person who “ONLY knows how to animate.”