Why didn't Jason orient neck joints?
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Yuxi Zhang
Jan 24, 2015, 3:31:14 PM1/24/15
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Hi, fellow riggers,
I am on Video 2B and I have a question about joint orientations.
While Mr. Jason was rigging the torso, he talked a lot about joint orientation. Later on, while he was rigging the neck, he didn't bother checking it at all.
I was wondering if it is because the spline IK handle's advanced twist controls settings.
I know that the up vector and scene up settings are local axis. But I tried to orient joints in another way, and then, failed to set the right twist controls. :(
Is there a specific reason that Jason didn't check neck joints orientation?
How would joint orientation affects ik handle's twist exactly?
I really appreciate anyone's opinions.
Thank you in advance.
Regards,
Yuxi
Joe Weidenbach
Jan 25, 2015, 3:04:58 PM1/25/15
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Hi Yuxi,
I'll admit that I haven't watched all of the videos--with that said, I've worked through the PDF that came with them multiple times. In the written version, we do indeed orient the neck joints. The primary thing to remember is that at this stage, we've done a lot of work with other joint chains, so my guess would be that that portion was left out to move forward with more advanced concepts.
The way Jason works through this series is from a problem solving perspective--so, we go through each subsystem, break it down by requirements, and then address those requirements.
Most of the time when I'm rigging these days, I'll build most if not all of my skeleton up front, and orient everything at that stage before I go into any control setups.
As to your question about ik twist, the main place orientation would come into it is that you need to know the local axis alignments to be able to set up the twisting properly. If for whatever reason the joints are not oriented properly, that becomes a lot harder to do, and in a worst-case scenario, could be nearly impossible (if the joints down the chain receiving twist are out of alignment with each other). In the case of the neck, though, Maya automatically orients the joints when they are created to match up, so even if it's technically an incorrect orientation, it shouldn't affect the ability to set up the twist.
One thing I can suggest, if you're struggling with setting up the advanced twist, is to turn on the Local Rotation Axis display for the joints and the two neck controls. You can do this under Display->Transforms->Local Rotation Axis with the joints or controls selected. Then you can see where your axes are pointing and use that information to figure out your respective "up" directions for the spline IK handle.
Hope that helps,
Joe
I'll admit that I haven't watched all of the videos--with that said, I've worked through the PDF that came with them multiple times. In the written version, we do indeed orient the neck joints. The primary thing to remember is that at this stage, we've done a lot of work with other joint chains, so my guess would be that that portion was left out to move forward with more advanced concepts.
The way Jason works through this series is from a problem solving perspective--so, we go through each subsystem, break it down by requirements, and then address those requirements.
Most of the time when I'm rigging these days, I'll build most if not all of my skeleton up front, and orient everything at that stage before I go into any control setups.
As to your question about ik twist, the main place orientation would come into it is that you need to know the local axis alignments to be able to set up the twisting properly. If for whatever reason the joints are not oriented properly, that becomes a lot harder to do, and in a worst-case scenario, could be nearly impossible (if the joints down the chain receiving twist are out of alignment with each other). In the case of the neck, though, Maya automatically orients the joints when they are created to match up, so even if it's technically an incorrect orientation, it shouldn't affect the ability to set up the twist.
One thing I can suggest, if you're struggling with setting up the advanced twist, is to turn on the Local Rotation Axis display for the joints and the two neck controls. You can do this under Display->Transforms->Local Rotation Axis with the joints or controls selected. Then you can see where your axes are pointing and use that information to figure out your respective "up" directions for the spline IK handle.
Hope that helps,
Joe
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Yuxi Zhang
Jan 30, 2015, 4:56:25 PM1/30/15
to AnimatorFri...@googlegroups.com
Hi, Joe!
Thanks for your reply!!
I did some experiments on the advanced twist controls, and I'd like to share with you and other friends. Maybe you already know :)
In my original post, I mentioned that Mr. Jason didn't check neck joint orientation. The reason may be that ik spline handle will decide the joint orientation for us.
See the picture below, when I enable the ikhandle twist control, the joint orientation changes, and the change is influenced by UP AXIS attribute (under Advanced Twist Controls). The Up Axis will try to align with the direction of Up Vector. Up Vector and Up Vector 2 is in world space.
I hope it will help clear some confusion. If I am wrong about anything, welcome to correct me.
Thank you very much,
Yuxi
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