Aaah, f...rig - can't get my head round rigging...Alonso, help

[GeordieJames]

Hi all,

 

Looking for some basic help with rigging a tail - its part of a logo and I'm deconstructing the logo to animate it back into its final state.

 

The pic attached shows the position it needs to finish in and it shows my initial attempts to rig it.

 

I know I could animate the bones individually but as I understand this is what IK is for so I want to try and work it out properly.

 

Steps so far ;

 

1. I created a straight mesh with the right thicknesses for the final logo - segmented enough to bend properly

2. Created bones along its length

 

now, here's what I 'wanted' to do, from this point set IK handles and bend and twist the tail from the straight position to the final curved position....and then animate it

 

my best success has been however to rotate the bones till the skinned shape matches the logo (what you see in the pic attached) and then attach IK handles

 

But of course with little understanding I can't bend it as I want to and it flips and does all sorts of crazy stuff.

 

So this is an initial shout out for some help working out the best way of animating this tail, and of course if probably a pre-cursor to me finally buying your rigging DVD's Alonso (this is the first project I've needed to do this...honest)

 

Look forward to comments/suggestions

 

Cheers

 

James

[mondoman]

I'm no rigging expert, but I think curling a tail like that might be tough for one IK handle, can you make it several bone chains instead of one? Or maybe try the Bezier II deformer instead.

[GeordieJames]

Hey Mondoman - good call on the bexier 2 deformation - I've managed to almost replicate the curve (probably good enough for my purposes) using the tail split in two and each one having a bezier 2 deformation....now to animate it :-)

[AVTPro]

You have a couple of options and they are not very complex. 

 

1. I have FK Spine tutorial that I sell for $45. I can look for it if you want to purchase it via PayPal. It focuses only the FK Spine which can also be used for tails and snakes and such. 

 

I don't usually show in my character animation DVDs because it's a little more work than just a basic character rig. I'll need a minute to find it. 

 

2. The FK Spine that I did is base on the Natural Spine tutorial which was free. I don't know there that is. It's not a difficult set up, it just takes a little more time. 

 

3. You can do it IK spine as well. If you are interested, I can a IK and FK spine tutorial just for tails $85. 

 

4. I can do a full Quadrupad if I have 6 pre-orders. 

 

5. There's a free AVTPro ReadyRigs Saleman Rig that has the FKSpine Rig which you can just pull it out and use as is. 

However, just to help. What you need to do is make a simple 3 bone chain with IK or FK position constraints, Then make smaller bones with rotation constraints. 

It should look like this.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01r6et2bQSc