Page 969 - Kitab3DsMax

Understanding
Rigging and Working
with Bones CHAPTER

hat does a graveyard have in common with animated characters? The
answer is bones. Bones are used as an underlying structure attached IN THIS CHAPTER
Wto a character that is to be animated. By using a bones structure, you
can produce complex character motions by simply animating the bones and not Creating a rigging workflow
having to move all the vertices associated with a high-resolution character.
Building a bones system
Although Max includes a prebuilt skeleton with its Biped and CAT systems, at Setting bone parameters and
times you may want to build a custom bones system because not all characters
stand on two feet. Have you ever seen a sci-fi movie in which the alien was less IK Solvers
than humanlike? If your character can’t be created by modifying a biped, then Making linked objects into a
you need to use the traditional manual methods of rigging. bones system
This chapter focuses on the process of manually rigging a character, which,
depending on the complexity of your character, could end up being even easier
than working with bipeds. It also gives you a clear idea of concepts of rigging.

Creating a Rigging Workflow

A rigged character starts with a linked hierarchy. A linked hierarchy attaches, or
links, one object to another and makes it possible to transform the attached
object by moving the one to which it is linked. The arm is a classic example of a
linked hierarchy: When the shoulder rotates, so do the elbow, wrist, and fingers.
Establishing linked hierarchies can make moving, positioning, and animating
many objects easy.
A bones system is a unique case of a linked hierarchy that has a specific struc-
ture. You can create a structure of bones from an existing hierarchy, or you can
create a bones system and attach objects to it. A key advantage of a bones system
is that you can use IK (inverse kinematics) Solvers to manipulate and animate the
structure. These IK Solvers enable the parents to rotate when the children are
moved. In this way, the IK Solver maintains the chain integrity. Another advan-
tage of a bones structure is that you can constrain the motion of bones so the
motion is forced to be realistic, just like a real character.

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