Rigging in Maya? (Advice)

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Rez007
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Rigging in Maya? (Advice)

Post by Rez007 » 27 Nov 2016, 02:50

Hello,

I am looking for a book/tutorial that really shows how to rig well in Maya. I have seen some great rigs out there...


and this,




The second one is based on FACS and uses zero blendshapes. Anyone have a good book or tutorial on how to do this, for someone who is new to Maya?

I also watched a behind the scenes on some Disney and Dreamworks productions, and they show just putting the cursor on the mesh, which highlights an area, and you control it from there.

So far I found this book,

https://www.amazon.com/Right-Animation- ... B00DEKS9KG

It is a little older and I was wondering if someone has it and recommends it? Do you think it is still relevant today?

Any other books/tutorial recommendations is appreciated too. It doesn't necessarily have to be facial rigging, body rigging is fine for me to learn with, as well.

Thank You.

nodeway

Re: Rigging in Maya? (Advice)

Post by nodeway » 27 Nov 2016, 11:57

Stop Staring => https://www.amazon.com/Stop-Staring-Fac ... 0470609907 <= is sprobably a good choice for info on facial rigging.

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Mathaeus
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Re: Rigging in Maya? (Advice)

Post by Mathaeus » 27 Nov 2016, 15:20

Well if you already created your own rig in SI, should be possible to find equivalents, to some level. It works if you want to envelope to nulls, or to keep the SI style 1 unit=10cm. Older tuts should be fine, while there are UI changes in newer versions like Node Editor (from 2012 I think), or Shape Editor and Time Editor in Maya 2017. However underlying structure is (again more or less) same, Node Editor is, I think, Max Slate engine over Hypergraph in connection mode, Shape Editor controls same Blend Shape node. For Time Editor, if you're familiar with SI Anim Mixer, one evening should be enough to get into.

For start, perhaps is good idea to forget FACS or mesh based selection. There is nothing streamlined in Maya for both, if I'm correct, it won't go without serious coding knowledge.

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Rez007
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Re: Rigging in Maya? (Advice)

Post by Rez007 » 28 Nov 2016, 02:41

Thanks guys! I have the first edition of "Stop Staring" which is a good book, and that one looks pretty nice too. I didn't know if anyone had the book "Rig it Right" and see how it was and if it had any "insider" knowledge. I think I read the author came from Dreamworks. When I saw the behind-the-scenes of Kung Fu Panda 3, I liked how they just highlighted the mesh with a mouse click and moved it from there without any visible controls - so I didn't know if maybe that technique was in the book I mentioned.

When I saw the FACS based method (thanks for sharing that link too Mathaeus) that looked pretty sweet. I do not mind the math part at all behind it - I am more technical too - so that is good with me, but when I looked for tutorials on how to learn FACS...literally nothing at all on the net or anywhere that I could find. Do you guys know if that method is in either the book I mentioned or the newer version of Stop Staring, or anything else? It is more of a personal learning thing to learn that method, so I do not mind taking time learning it the correct way.

Thanks!

anhungxadieu
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Re: Rigging in Maya? (Advice)

Post by anhungxadieu » 28 Nov 2016, 03:11

i also wonder node editor in maya is like softimage ice? it's a way to create relationship between objects or we need to use expression or ... well, i also want to do some rig in maya but still not know where to start. I saw some thing like mgear, or advantage skeleton ... but all this is quite code regarding. Is there a way to do by use traditional tools only?

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Mathaeus
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Re: Rigging in Maya? (Advice)

Post by Mathaeus » 28 Nov 2016, 10:25

Rez007 wrote:When I saw the FACS based method (thanks for sharing that link too Mathaeus) that looked pretty sweet. I do not mind the math part at all behind it - I am more technical too - so that is good with me, but when I looked for tutorials on how to learn FACS...literally nothing at all on the net or anywhere that I could find. Do you guys know if that method is in either the book I mentioned or the newer version of Stop Staring, or anything else? It is more of a personal learning thing to learn that method, so I do not mind taking time learning it the correct way.

Thanks!
Don't believe that Stop Staring exactly followed the FACS system, while shouldn't be hard to adapt targets and blends to be more in FACS style.
About Dreamworks mesh based selections,their animation software is not Maya. Anyway I'm afraid entire story is not that simple as plain selection filtered by areas on mesh, I think they had a very special rigs too, to determine *what* certain selection is doing, does it moves, rotates, what happens when there are two rotation controllers on same position, so on. For such task, I think it's better to start with something like Mel Scripting for Maya Animators.

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Mathaeus
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Re: Rigging in Maya? (Advice)

Post by Mathaeus » 28 Nov 2016, 10:51

anhungxadieu wrote:i also wonder node editor in maya is like softimage ice? it's a way to create relationship between objects or we need to use expression or
Be my guest (at bottom of thread) Visually it's looking almost the same, structure is different. Of course it can create many sorts of relationships, and that's a way faster o evaluate than expression in Maya (expression in Maya is more like SI SCOP). However, network exists on scene level, generally you'll be able to see all connections from base mesh, to shader at the end. Also, node often represents both ''get data'' and ''set data'', making a somehow typical ''circular'' connections. Deformers are existing on scene level too, there are nodes to tell them where and how to apply. In short, in some complex scene, you'll be able to see literally everything, from lights and shaders, to simulators or constrains.
anhungxadieu wrote:... well, i also want to do some rig in maya but still not know where to start. I saw some thing like mgear, or advantage skeleton ... but all this is quite code regarding. Is there a way to do by use traditional tools only?
Of course, while that "traditional'' level (when you don't have node editor or hypergraph opened) , imho is definitively smaller than in Softimage or Max. Perhaps it shows only what Maya chimp.... :D oops... artist in big facility full of TDs, is supposed to know.

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Daniel Brassard
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Re: Rigging in Maya? (Advice)

Post by Daniel Brassard » 28 Nov 2016, 19:00

Try the Animation Friendly Rigging master class from Jason Schleifer, this will start you rigging in the right direction in Maya.

http://jasonschleifer.com/afr/

Rig it Right is a good book, especially the "rules" of rigging for animation. I would start with Jason master class first as Tina book build on Jason animation master class (Jason heavily influenced Tina's book, so they complement each-other). The technique of animation rigging taught in those books are still relevant today.

An other site with good classes from Rigging Dojo

http://ondemand.riggingdojo.com/

There is also the Art of Rigging (A Definitive Guide To Character Technical Direction With Alias Maya) series (vol 1, 2 and 3). They are hard to find but volume 1 and 2 are very useful.
Last edited by Daniel Brassard on 28 Nov 2016, 19:18, edited 1 time in total.
$ifndef "Softimage"
set "Softimage" "true"
$endif

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Rez007
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Re: Rigging in Maya? (Advice)

Post by Rez007 » 28 Nov 2016, 19:16

Thanks guys for the replies and thank you Daniel for the links. I will have to check them out.

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