Creating Controls Off-Axis

So... Some more really dull stuff, how to control joints that are at different angles. Woohoo!
Part 1
Part 2
Basically, this is 3 different ways of setting up control for joints where you can have the control angled, but still have zeroed rotations. This is so much more exciting than all that non-technical, artistic stuff...

And as an added bonus, I show how to parent shape nodes to transform nodes, oh joy!

Overthinking...

Alright, so one of the things I seem to do is overthink things when it comes to the technical rigging stuff. Trying to come up with something overly complicated to do a simple task. But that usually ends up becoming too complicated to rig, not to mention too complicated to use the damned thing.

But I still have to explore these options and test things and be creative. And if I keep plugging at it, eventually I can come up with something elegant and simple. And then just add levels of control to that.

That being said, I think I have come up with the best solution for the spine. It will be FK, but I may add in that extra level for IK. More to come...

Curvy, Stretchy IK/FK Arm

Ok, so... this is something that has been eating up a fair amount of my time. I was inspired by Horton Hears a Who to build an arm that has a nice curvy ability, and can stretch, and switch between inverse kinematics and forward kinematics.

I wrote a script that automates all the setup. The script just requires the joints. Now, right now, it only works for an arm that is built straight, and parallel to grid, and the character has to be facing in the +Z axis. I know not everyone builds characters like this, but it's the way I do it, so it works for me.

I am by no means an expert at scripting. I pretty much just copy and paste out of the script editor as I do the work, and tweak it.

Quality is pretty poor, so I have uploaded a higher quality one to Youtube


Any comments and suggestions are appreciated!

First Post...

Alright, well here goes....

I am lucky to be an artist at BioWare here in my home town of Edmonton. I work with some of the most amazing people in the industry.

Before that, I taught 3d stuff and freelanced. So I figure I would try to give something back to the community that I have learned a great deal from. That being said, I am going to post some tutorials and screenshots and other things of that nature that might help people out.

One of my goals is to create a rig, or even an auto rig, for animators. So anyone willing to be a beta tester is welcome to what I have to offer!

Unofficial Disclaimer: These are just things that I have learned, and are by no means perfect, nor necessarily the best way of doing things. Feel free to message me if you have any comments and criticisms, or even suggestions and questions for future posts.