Hello,
Over the Summer, I’ll be doing a university project where I’ll be looking into custom rigging with bones in 3ds Max (no plug-ins like Biped or Human-IK), but I’m interested to find out what passes for an “intermediate” feature on a bipedial character rig so that I know what I have to include and maybe what I can include if I have time towards the end.
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For the face I was going to go for a bones-based approach rather than a morph target solution - I have seen people create spline controllers on a seperate panel (like you’d see in a traditional morph target set-up) which use Set-Driven Keys or Reaction Manager to control the bones’ position which is something I could try to incorporate.
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For the limbs, I have a list of features which I’d like to include:
[ul]
[li]Traditional IK-FK blending system (three chains: IK, FK and one for skinning)
[/li][li]Skinning bone chain blends between IK and FK with an arc rather than linearly
[/li][li]IK to FK snapping and FK to IK snapping
[/li][li]Twist links
[/li][li]Bendy elbow/knee
[/li][li]Additional controls for a hosepipe effect
[/li][li]IK pinning
[/li][li]IK/FK stretching
[/li][li]Volume preservation in elbow knee area (using Skin Morph)
[/li][/ul]
I’d like to know how to do elbow/knee pinning in 3ds Max, but I can’t find much information to implement that feature.
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For the hands:
[ul]
[li]Pose storing
[/li][li]Control rotations with viewport spline controls and slider UI controls
[/li][/ul]
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I can’t really decide what spine type to go for, but it must have:
[ul]
[li]Ability to stretch and squash
[/li][li]Change colour when stretched and a different colour when squashed
[/li][li]Have independant chest and pelvis controls
[/li][/ul]
and if I get time I’d like to look into creating section of the rig with script and rig resizing.
If you have other suggestions for features that I should try to include then I’d be happy to hear them.
Thanks,
-Harry
Whatever you do be very careful using reaction manager - it can get very hard to manage. I tend to use list controllers with float expressions instead as they are much more reliable.
I haven’t used Reaction Manager extensively, but so far I’ve found it quite enjoyable to work with. That being said I’ll keep your I’ll do some test using List Controllers and Float Expressions also.
Does anyone think that there are feature that I haven’t listed that should be included on an intermediate character rig?
Thanks,
-Harry
Foot roll stuff - reverse foot style setups are almost always a must
Ah yes of course, I’ll definately include that.
Just as an aside Matt: are these the sorts of features that a big studio like Rockstar would look for from junior/gradaute level employees? The reason I ask is because ultimately I’ll be creating a demoreel from the characters that I rig.
I’m with Matt on the Reaction Manager thing: I don’t know if they fixed it on the newest version, but even setting the values using MAXScript you could get weird and random numbers in the window that makes the tool useless. So keep an extra eye on it if you decide to go that way 
As for what a reel should have, I might say that your goal might be to show a studio that you can build a character with all these features. And those features can be seen in every single rigging reel ever done. So what would be a way to stand out from other people applying for a role? From my point of view, an appealing model and an appealing reel. The content of a rigging reel is what it is, especially for a junior/intermediate one. But if you put some ‘extra love’ on the editing (the camera does not fly too much; you don’t try every single control on the rig -special mention to the inverse foot roll: it’s something so basic that in my opinion it’s not worth being shown) and you get a nice model your reel will be more pleasant to see. And when it’s about selling your abilities and, ultimately, yourself, the way you sell it is as important as what you are selling 
That goes also for the facial rig: even though a rig with bones is more challenging, it might lead you to expressions that do not look as nicer as they might do if you do model them.
I’m with the others on that bipedal rigs are quite standard in graduate rigging reels (guilty as charged…), so you might want to try something out the box to catch people’s attention OR just do it really damn well. Get a good model if you can - it’s hard to tell how quality a rig is on a really bad model (does the movement look bad because of the rigging or a the modell?) and if you’re aiming for games try to reflect that in your rig/model (which seems to be your goal seeing as you’re going for a bone-based approach rather than using morph targets)! If you’re using bones for a facial rig, it’d be great to see how far you can push it! It can be hard getting it to work but I’ve seen some amazing results with very little bones! When I came out of uni my reel was all about features, but lacked quality or focus. If I was re-doing my final year project in uni with the knowledge I have now (only 9 months on…) I’d definitely change a lot of things and try to make it really shine!
I’m happy to give any advice being a recent graduate myself. Throw me a PM if you feel like it!
For me, if I’m looking at a reel for working with me at a games company, I want to see that the person applying understands runtime skeletons. Stretchy arms and stuff like that is so expensive at runtime that I almost always ignore that sort of stuff. What I want to see, is a skeleton with a low bone count that deforms the mesh really nicely. I want to see how you make it look as if its got muscle systems in there without it actually doing so.
Basically a reel, much like a resume needs to be tailored to the job which youre applying for. Do some research about that role and the tech that is generally available in that field (tv vs movies vs games) and then do something appropriate.
I like to be wowed by stuff on a reel and I dont need to see every little feature there, but I need to be shown WHY it would be appropriate on a game and then how intelligently designed it is.
Thank you for all of your replies - big help! Wuffles, it’s very kind of you to offer me some adivce, expect a PM soon ;).
