https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Ah-Jk7d30ks/hqdefault.jpg
Get the EXTENDED CUT of this tutorial: http://wp.me/P3V1aP-TL
Download the character used in the video here: http://wp.me/P3V1aP-Tm
This basic Maya character rigging tutorial shows how to create joints and skin your character to the resulting skeleton. Knowing joint creation and character skinning in Maya is the first step to animating characters properly!
This tutorial shows how to place joints correctly to create a skeleton that deforms a character correctly, and then shows how to attach the character skin to the skeleton, to ready it for posing and animation!
Topics touched on include the create joint tool and the insert joint tool, geodesic voxel binding, the hammer skin weights tool, the paint skin weights tool, and the component editor.
Now available is the EXTENDED CUT version of this tutorial! Over an hour long, every topic in this video is covered in more detail. New topics are introduced as well: there’s a guide on joint placement, skin weighting guidelines and best practices, and joint orients – and how the wrong joint orients can destroy your skeleton! Download it now: http://wp.me/P3V1aP-TL
source
34 responses to “MAYA CHARACTER RIGGING TUTORIAL: JOINTS & SKINNING”
Whaw, this is great Mr Tayler….
Amazing, Love your tutorial.
Really really concise! Thank you for sharing your knowledge 🙂
Hi James! I need to ask you something. On this vid you haven't used shapes for the IK/FK controllers, do you create them on the extended version of the tutorial? Because I have seen this one and have to say it's amazing. But those shapes, and how to connect them is what I am missing.
Thanks.
so it's all red to me by default, but my creature has a tail which is following the leg joints – why? and how do I paint it blue?
After i bind my skin to the joints, when i try to move the joints at the shoulder like you did, the joints simply move without the actual model moving…? please help :p
BEST RIGGING TUTORIAL EVER!!!!! Thanks!
hi again, so i want to animate my character but i noticed that when i move the model the teeth and eyes that are seperate object s that i combined with the main model does not follow, they just stay in place even though i combined them
is there a way to move the bones without deskinning it? as when i deskin it it goes into its original position but i want to change a bone placement after i set it in posistion
it does not let me paint, its just a large red x with a circle around it
He went full manual. Never go full manual.
So how do you erase when working in "Paint skin" mode?
how the fuck do you get the joints to place inside the body? my joints is going all over the place
man you save my life I've always got problem with rigging thank you very much
April 8, 2017. READ and reply to me. (every one, don't throw shit at me. this is my personal opinion. ^^): so many joints….so many. DAMN, THIS IS SO F ING HARD!!! drinks "wow, amazing, i'm going to be an animator" . "WOW. yes! this is great, now i know how to make "finding Nemo" by myself" ^^ NO! actually guys, i don't get a SHIT. being in the moody part of the day and having cramps, i like to kick any heads right now. YES BEBI, RIGHTNOW! since i also don't get a damn thing about maths and failin' every class here and there, the x y z axis are freakin' the hell outta me, so no i guess i'm goin' to just get DRUNK and DRIVE all night~ CHEERS~ to all of us, and the pandas who would be extinct without the help of animators . KUNG FU PANDA. haha. no.
thank you
Clear and detailed! The best rigging tutorial on Youtube!
I purchased the longer in-depth tutorials and they have been helping a lot, but ran into a problem when I try the Mirroring Skin Weights option. When I click Mirror Skin Weight and try to rotate both legs from the the hips the skeleton rig rotates the legs outward correctly but it unbind the right side leg skin and the skin of the toes follow the left leg. The right leg toes stretch from the bind pose position to follow the left leg. Not sure why this is happening. :(.
YOU ARE A FREAKING MASTER!!!! I BOW IN RESPECT!
Which is the key that you use to link the joins ?? P.D: Nice video tutorial 😀
I used the wrong side to paint my skin weights, so I'm not able to do the Mirror Skin Weights Option cause it copy the side I don't worked on. What could I do?
You make it sound so easy yet getting the joints to select properly, dealing with grid snapping, etc is a fucking nightmare.
Edit: Turns out my prefs were corrupt, if anyone else is having this issue delete your maya prefs folder and reopen maya. After I did that everything worked.
@James Taylor I have a question. I'm working with a character model that has multiple layers of clothing (a button up shirt and a vest over top). I have UV unwrapped each piece. Should I combine the two clothing meshes into one before skinning them to the joints? I'm having some trouble and I'm not sure how to go about it. It seems that even if I combine the clothing meshes into one model when I weight paint I still get clothing poking through one another. This is aggravating! It doesn't quite act as one solitary mesh. Do you have any thoughts on this? I've been stuck for a very long time.
My Helper joint on my thigh (Between hip and knee) It bends instead of being straight, how do I fix it?
hi James great tutorial, Can you also chose the max vertex bone influence to 5 or 4 for game develpment, how do you do it after , while or at the end of the skin weight editing?
I have a quest.
What is a roll joint?
hey it's me again,thanks for replying at my question earlier it was really helpful, put i'm having a new problem when i paint skin weight maya run so slow and the effect of the brush painting shows up after 30 seconds or so, i'm not on smooth mood and i deleted history before i bind skin,if u know what's going wrong i'll be very thankful 🙂
hey it's me again,thanks for replying at my question earlier it was really helpful, put i'm having a new problem when i paint skin weight maya run so slow and the effect of the brush painting shows up after 30 seconds or so, i'm not on smooth mood and i deleted history before i bind skin,if u know what's going wrong i'll be very thankful 🙂
Amazing! Thank you!
You just did in 30 – 40 min (video speed x2) what I've been trying to do for a week!
hey man love your videos i am interested in buying some of your guides but they are so expensive! ;'(
Bravo!
Damn! I never thought I'd learn rigging from James Taylor himself!
your tuto is sick but you are going sooo fast some times. I have trouble to understand painting weights logic precisely, if you got some tips/other tutos to give, plz do. but still, thanks for the vid
ang galing salamat sa pag bahagi ng iyong talento . madami akong natutunan ……