Toolkit 2: Autodesk Maya: Jetpack Jones: Skinning (Part 6)

Beginning by adjusting the weights to create a smoother falloff on the spine when bending it. This was done by locking everything besides the chest, pelvis, and upper, lower, and middle spine joints, and using the 'Smooth' function a few times on each. Three rows of edges on the bottom of the torso model were also checked to make sure that they were 100% weighted to the top of the pelvis.

Setting up the animation to prepare to add the pose deformers.

Opening the pose editor.

Editing the first pose, which is having the arm raised.

Editing the second pose, which is the arm lowered.

Before editing the third pose, I ran into an error in which the values of the downwards arm pose was not resetting to a value of 0 when adding in the third pose of having the arm move backwards. Since I  had already repeated the tutorial multiple times to ensure that I wasn't making a mistake and the error kept occurring, I figured that I didn't want to risk destroying the mesh or causing further problems, so I saved the file as its own version and will continue with the rigging tutorials on a backup save file, which is a previous version from before any pose deformers were added but after the spine was adjusted to accommodate the smoother blending.

The rest of the sixth skinning tutorial went on to fix the third arm pose by thinning out sections of the chest and continuing to adjust the chest, shoulder, and back either manually by changing the positions of the vertices or edges and by relaxing them with the sculpting tool. The same was done with the next pose, which had the arm moving forward and initially caused deformation in the shoulder and back with a collapsed chest.

For the next two poses which were backwards and forwards twisting of the shoulder, the texture on the model was made visible so the results of the adjustments could be viewed more easily. Otherwise, a similar method to the other arm poses was used in that the vertices were relaxed to create a more natural falloff when the shoulder twisted. This completed the arm.

Pose interpolation was then created for the elbow and animation keyframed in so that pose deformers could be added to it when it bends. The main issue with the elbow initially was that volume was lost due to the placement of the joint in the arm, but could be fixed by making minor adjustments to the inside and outside of the elbow to make sure that it didn't overinflate or collapse on either side. Parts of the upper arm were also edited to create a more convincing movement.

The same was done to the wrist afterwards. In preparation to fix the issues with the shrinking, however, locators were created and positioned around the wrist as references for the movements so that the wrist size could be changed to be more consistent. Other parts of the wrist were also edited to prevent it from collapsing into the forearm when bending (the soft selection tool was done for this).

Afterwards, any animation remaining was deleted from the model completely. With the pose editor open, the shoulder joint was selected and all of the poses selected so that they could be mirrored across. The same was done with the other joints, and then each of them were run through on both sides to check that they were functioning correctly.

The seventh tutorial is focused on the lower body and begins by renaming the leg joints to 'hip' joints. Animation was also added to them in order to create the poses with the editor. The same processes as the previous tutorial were followed, wherein the pelvis, hip, and knee areas were edited by manually altering the positions of the edges and vertices or by changing them using the relaxing tool, followed by mirroring them across and checking them to make sure that they're working properly at the end. 

Toolkit 2: Autodesk Maya: Jetpack Jones: Skinning (Part 5)

Setting up the keyframes for the lower body movements. 

Using the previous methods to paint the weights into the foot.

Painting the weights onto the ankle.

Using the same method for the forearm and wrist to put in a twist function for the shin and ankle.

Tweaking the upper ankle to make sure the twist works smoothly.

Painting the weights onto and working on the knee.

Painting the weights onto the pelvis area.

Making adjustments to create smoother movements.

Running through the weights to make sure that they are all unlocked in preparation to mirror them all across.

Checking the settings on the 'Mirror Weights' tool to make sure that everything is correct when mirroring them across to minimise risk of problems occurring.

Testing that the mirroring worked.

Toolkit 2: Autodesk Maya: Jetpack Jones: Skinning (Part 4)

Setting up the keyframes for the fingers before blending the weights after taking the geometry out of the 'Smooth' preview setting.

Selecting the edge of the joint where the weights need to be blended and converting it to vertices, changing the 'Value' setting to 0.1000, and pressing the 'Flood' button until the edge is where it needs to be.

Applying the same steps to the next row of vertices on the same joint, but only hitting the 'Flood' button a single time.

Applying the same process again on the vertex on the opposite side, but switching the weights from the first joint to the second to blend them properly and ensure the geometry behaviour is correct when bending the finger.

Previewing how it looks with the geometry smoothed. 

Using the same set of processes on the middle and base joints of the same finger.

Using the above steps to repeat the entire process for the other fingers and the first joint of the thumb.

Moving on to the thumb twist area. Decreasing the 'Value' to flood in smaller increments on the thumb twist joint.

Doing the same again but flooding onto the thumb base joint instead.

Tweaking the thumb twist as well as proceeding to edit the weights on the underside of the thumb.

After completing the thumb, the spaces between the fingers are flooded 100% on the wrist joint. The base joint on both fingers on either side of the space is then selected and both have a smaller flood value added. This is repeated for the other two spaces between the fingers as well.

Tweaking the bases of the fingers on the underside of the hand. 

Moving on to the wrist area after completing the hands. The wrist vertices are selected, followed by the 'Replace' option. The 'Value' is then set to 100% again and the entire area is flooded.

Locking all of the joints.

Unlocking only the forearm and wrist joints and then tweaking the wrist using the 'Add' and 'Smooth' options with varying 'Value' options until satisfied with how the geometry behaves.

Once complete, the wrist joint is locked and the elbow layer is unlocked (the forearm joint also remains unlocked). The 'Add' and 'Smooth' functions are used again to create a smooth twist in the forearm when the wrist is rotated.

Unlocking all of the layers again to work on the elbow. Following a similar process as the fingers; flooding a 'Value' of 0.1000 to either side of the centre row of vertices on the elbow and shoulder joints followed by smaller values for a falloff effect when the arm is bent.

Applying these processes to the clavicle and the shoulder.

Working on the collar area and weighting the neck to the first chest joint so the geometry of the neck doesn't protrude through the collar when twisting and moving.

Working on the torso and pelvis by adjusting the weights for the upper, mid, and lower torso joints and the pelvis joint.

Body twisting.

Squash and stretch effect.