Problem Rigging A Wooden Mannequin Shoulder

Rigging
1

Hello,

I’m trying to rig a shoulder of a wooden table mannequin; the problem is that the shoulder joint should only rotate in one axis, whereas the upper arm is part of an IK solver so rotates in three axis - at the moment the rig is working perfectly when the chest has no rotation, it also works perfectly when the chest is rotated in the X or Y axis, but when you rotate the chest helper more than about 50 degrees in the Z axis the orientation begins to fail.

I think I’ve got a pretty decent initial setup, but can anyone help me solve the Z axis rotation problem?

The file was too big to upload on these forums, so I uploaded it to Hotfile instead, here’s the URL: https://hotfile.com/dl/191633282/272a034/MannequinShoulderJoint.zip.html

Thanks for your time,
-Harry

2

Hi hazmondo.

Can you tell us what software are you using?

3

Hello ccardenete, I’m using 3ds Max 2013 64-bit. I tried three different methods to solve the problem: using a LookAt constraint, extracting local rotations and finally using IK - and the latter option seems to give me the best results. I’ve uploaded my solution to hotfile if you’d like to look at it. Here’s the link: https://hotfile.com/dl/194293587/1223113/MannequinShoulderJointV2.zip.html

Thanks,
-Harry

4

Not sure if you have solved the problem already and to be perfectly honest I am not familiar with max. That being said, if max is anything like maya or motion builder if you check your graph editor and see odd spikes or jumps in the Z axis that might be your problem.

Hope that helps,
-Jeremy

5

I’m rigging a shoulder pad to a biped and I’d like it to only rotate on one axis … as you when I was rigging a Wooden Mannequin that I modelled.

6

If you’re using 3ds Max, have a look at the file I uploaded - I’ve put it in some extreme poses and it hasn’t flipped - and if you like the results you’re getting then see if you can deconstruct my setup.