Toolkit 2 Jetpack Jones: Body Rigging

 This area of Toolkit 2 saw the completion of my 3D character's body skeleton through the addition of IK handles, controllers, and restrictions. 

I created IK handles for both legs from the hip to shin joints, then moving the end effector to the ankle joint. Changing the end effectors position allows the shin to move realistically in the leg. 

I created controls for the characters body, starting with the feet, connecting relevant joints and working up the legs. 

Using the same method, I worked through the arms, spine and pelvis. Parenting appropriately to create the correct hagiarchy. 

I used the connection editor to link link finger joints to relevant attributes in hand controllers, mostly working with the Rotate Z channel. 

Once all body controllers were connected, I created a world controller and made sure to turn off Inherits transform. This prevents the double translation of geometry whilst using the world controller to move the entire rig. 

I coloured my controllers based on their position, being left or right. Yellow also indicates central controls, and white indicates neutral positioning. 

I used the edit attribute tool to limit the movement of each controller, preventing extreme geometry manipulation. This finalised the body rigging process. 

Above, a finished body rig. The next stages of this process require rigging the characters facial features. Overall, I faced fewer challenges compared to the skinning process; making sure to freeze transformations to prevent unwanted data in the channel boxes. Left and right sides of the model work symmetrically, movement is smooth, and geometry doesn't deform thanks to movement restrictions.