Rigging and Skinning 101 - Arms and Hands

The clavicle joint represents the clavicle bone

Three arm joints, representing the shoulder, elbow and wrist, created in that order for the correct hierarchy. 

The size of the joint can depend on the click of the mouse (when creating the joint) and the viewport you were using. For a more aesthetically clean rig, joints can be scaled using the ‘radius’ channel.

Four joints are used to make a finger. These can be duplicated and adjusted to replicate the realistic length variation of the different fingers.

A general rule is that the hand will roughly be half the length of the elbow-to-wrist.

The joints within the thumb need to be rotated, to create a realistic thumb position. However, rotating it in the channel boxed will create unwanted values. Instead, use the ‘joint orient’ within the attribute editor. Once all the fingers are in place, they can be parented to the wrist, creating a palm.

Instead of re-modelling the right arm, we can use the ‘mirror joint’ tool and give the mirrored joints a new name. (L to R).

Controls are then added to the arms. Circles and crescents.

Channels for each finger joint are then created. This control can be duplicated to the opposite hand, to speed-up the process.

Using the connection editor, the controls are paired-up to the joints.