Zbrush - Week 17:

In this blog we will be learning rigging which will help in the future for our other projects and help us in the future with creating characters when we want to pose or animation.

Go to the rigging tab to see rigging tools

Rigging can take a while

We are making a basic rig that could be used on a background character 

For games this can be used for NPCs but not for cutscenes

This rigs work for a human but it's not for stylised characters

You can create a rig and then add to a character and change it or you can create a character and then make the rig specifically for it

Using orthographic view ports quite a bit

If you need to reset your grid size or change it you can go to display > grid > options box > edit > change the grid size

Work from pelvis out and you create the joints from the pelvis

Use naming convention as L or R for left or right then name of joint then JNT for joint - L_Knee_JNT or could be R_Ankle_JNT

- Go to side view
- Use baseline as 0
- Go to skeleton tab - reset tool if needed
- Select joint tool 
- Count how many units (Squares in maya) you need to go up
- Hold down X button (Snap to grid) to make sure there is no rotation 
- Then add joint
- Go down 5 and one to the left
- Hold down X then click (The triangle shows the direction - it should be facing down to the left & links two joints together)
- Add a joint a square off the ground on the center line and base line 
- Add a joint a square off the center towards the left & add one from there two squares away (Make sure to name the joints as you go)
- Go to the perspective grid and move the joints two squares over
- Add a pelvis joint by going to the front view port and then add a new joint to the middle (Make sure to name it using C rather than L or R as it is in the middle of the rig)
- Select the leg and then hold shift and select the pelvis (Select child first then parent second) go to edit tab and then click parent 
- Select joints you want to mirror go to skeleton tab then go to mirror joints (Select options) don't select the pelvis just click the top of the leg 
- Click YZ and in the search for box put L_ and then in the replace with box add R_ then hit mirror
- Go to IK Handle in the Skeleton tab
- Single-Plane Solver is less complex than a Rotate-Plane Solver we will use a Rotation-Plane Solver
- Turn the Sticky option on 
- Change IK back to Single-Plane Solver
- Add Single-Plane Solvers to the ankle and toe joints
- Select left leg IK
- Go to edit and then group (Ctrl + G)
- Rename it L_Heel_Lift_GRP
- Move the pivot point holding D and V and move it to the ankle joint
- Select L_Toe_IK and group it
- Move the pivot point to the foot ball
- CTRL click selecting the left stabiliser as well as the other two groups that were made and then group them and call it L_Heel_Tap_GRP
- Move the pivot point of the Heel Tap group to behind the ankle by one square behind the ankle on the floor
- Group that group and call it L_Pirouette_LR_GRP (The LR means Left and right for the movement) and move the pivot point to the toe
- Group that group and call it L_Pirouette_UD_GRP and move the pivot point to the toe
- Group that group and call it L_Footroll_L_GRP and move the pivot point to the middle of the foot and then to the characters left by one (Away from the other foot)
- Group that group and call it L_Footroll_L_GRP and move the pivot point to the middle of the foot and then to the characters right by one (Towards the other foot)
- Group that group and name it L_Foot_GRP and move the pivot point to where the ankle is
- Do all of that on the other side