I have modelled a Mech inside 3DS Max and now wish to rig it. I am unaware of what way I should rig this so that I can have the top half and bottom half rotate independently but still be attached to each other. I want to make it so the legs can move with the pelvis but only rotate up and down and front and back not side to side (which would look super funny if they could though) haha. I also wish the arms to rotate with the body but have the railgun on the left arm rotate on the axle connecting it to the arm and have the right arm cannon rotate up and down. If this can’t be done then I guess I will have to think of another way to do something.
I will attach a photo of the mech so you can get an idea of what it looks like and the general gist of what I wish to do.
offset in the hips is going to make it tough as you want to have an ik-handle in the legs for planting (which works best in a single plane)
im doing something similar: http://www.perryleijten.com/images/MechBuildTest_1920x1080.png
but havent found a nice way to add the ik without a cycle, breaking the mess or limiting the movement
the easiest way is an fk chain but animators will hate you for it
Yeah I was thinking about that but like you said, animators will really hate me for it =( which is the big reason as to why I don’t want to go that route lol. Hmm guess I’ll keep trying to see what I can come up with.
[QUOTE=smcin72;24469]Hi guys this is my first post here.
I have modelled a Mech inside 3DS Max and now wish to rig it. I am unaware of what way I should rig this so that I can have the top half and bottom half rotate independently but still be attached to each other. I want to make it so the legs can move with the pelvis but only rotate up and down and front and back not side to side (which would look super funny if they could though) haha. I also wish the arms to rotate with the body but have the railgun on the left arm rotate on the axle connecting it to the arm and have the right arm cannon rotate up and down. If this can’t be done then I guess I will have to think of another way to do something.
I will attach a photo of the mech so you can get an idea of what it looks like and the general gist of what I wish to do.
Thanks in advance![/QUOTE]
Hi! I did something similar for this mech (the first one in the video):
I used Ik handles for the legs and just locked the rotation axis i didn’t want the limbs to move in. For the arms i used FK.
[QUOTE=Ella;24473]Hi! I did something similar for this mech (the first one in the video):
I used Ik handles for the legs and just locked the rotation axis i didn’t want the limbs to move in. For the arms i used FK.[/QUOTE]
Oh wow nice :), Thanks for showing me that and telling me what you did, I might have to try the FK for the arms then, The IK I have on the legs just for some reason whenever I lock rotations on the legs it doesn’t work. I will probably re-rig the legs again later on but the video really helped
Ella is correct, but it would not work for your mech as it does not have the balljoint for the hip in the same plane as the knee and the ankle,
unless you do not treat the hip as a ball joint but a hing joint, then it would work, but you will limit the amount of freedom you have in the movement of the leg
if you are using maya you can have a look at this mech: http://perryleijten.com/download/Graduation_Mech_PerryLeijten.rar i did something similar there with the offset in the hip area,
allthough the mechanical components are different might be worth to check it out
[QUOTE=peerke88;24475]Ella is correct, but it would not work for your mech as it does not have the balljoint for the hip in the same plane as the knee and the ankle,
unless you do not treat the hip as a ball joint but a hing joint, then it would work, but you will limit the amount of freedom you have in the movement of the leg
if you are using maya you can have a look at this mech: http://perryleijten.com/download/Graduation_Mech_PerryLeijten.rar i did something similar there with the offset in the hip area,
allthough the mechanical components are different might be worth to check it out[/QUOTE]
Thanks for that, I’ll have a look although I am not familiar with Maya. I mainly use 3DS Max, trying to learn Maya now though. I guess this is going to give me some trouble unless I turn all areas where it is hinged into the body as joints, there might be a way to do it but this escapes me for now. Sorry for my bad english.
I think you might want to rethink the topology. Really think HOW will the legs and arms move. Right now, while looking at the pictures, I honestly can’t see how it would work. Where will the heel/knee rotate? How will you move the hip? Can you flip the toes?
[QUOTE=Ella;24488]I think you might want to rethink the topology. Really think HOW will the legs and arms move. Right now, while looking at the pictures, I honestly can’t see how it would work. Where will the heel/knee rotate? How will you move the hip? Can you flip the toes?[/QUOTE]
I created a simple rig just to test this so i could see how it would turn out but as you said the joints don’t exactly rotate the way I wan’t them too. I might go back, fix up and clean the topology so that it can move properly. I have added a link to the youtube video to show you how it ended up with a very simple rig
[QUOTE=Ella;24504]Hi! I think it looks OK. You should consider having some sort of toe flip to be able to plant the foot better. :)[/QUOTE]
Thanks! First time rigging it fully and it turned out alright haha. Now to create a half decent walk cycle ;_;
I will be adding some joints in for the foot, and some controllers just for the toes so that they flip up when the heel comes up and have the back rotate backwards so that when it comes down on the ground it sort of looks like its running properly. After rewatching the video a little bit I think it looks okay as is, but just needs some toe flips. I want to add a LookAt controller to the left and right guns so they have some dynamic movement and can move independently. The right cannon gun to move vertically and the left rail gun horizontally so that it can rotate independently but no luck as of yet!
[QUOTE=Ella;24506]You probably don’t need to use a aim attribute for the guns, especially if they only can in one axis, a simple FK will probably do.[/QUOTE]
Oh okay, maybe I should try the FK then, since whenever I attach the LookAt controller to the main body to allow it to rotate it breaks off and doesn’t work.
First time rigging it fully and it turned out alright haha. Now to create a half decent walk cycle ;_;