Tortoise Rigging Script
Demo
In the Maya Rigging pipeline, the process of creating a complete IK/FK Switch System involves repetitive operations of creating skeletons and various controllers. Rigging Scripts can be created to accomplish these operations efficiently.
For this reason, I have created a script for tortoise models that generates complete rigging in a snap, which is extremely portable and can be used for any tetrapod with a similar skeletal structure.
Skeleton
First, I created Tortoise's skeletal structure using a series of iterations. This structure was duplicated into three: the IK skeleton, the FK skeleton, and the skeleton used for skin binding. All of them are renamed automatically.
The locations of the joints are put into a series of lists, and when the scripts are used in different models, the user can edit them according to the model's structure.
IK
First, I used the code to create the effect limb's IK Handles on the foot, and I created World Controllers and Local Controllers for controlling the IK Handles.This allows the system to automatically calculate the position of the knee and hip joints when modifying the foot transform and create natural leg movements.
First, I used the code to create the effect limb's IK Handles on the foot, and I created World Controllers and Local Controllers for controlling the IK Handles.This allows the system to automatically calculate the position of the knee and hip joints when modifying the foot transform and create natural leg movements.
In order to fix the joint rotation error that occurs during automated calculations, I made a series of Pole Vector Controllers for the limbs.
According to the rules in Maya, this Controller must be coplanar with the plane formed by the limb joints. Therefore, I designed a function so that it calculates the offset value of this Controller in the joint plane, which ultimately makes it align near the knee joint
At the root of the limb, I created a series of Base Controllers that serve to control the root joints of the IK joint chain. When they move, the end of the chain stays still. Thus, I can create a squat with these Controllers