Rigging of Hulk: Part 1

This is the follow up tutorial series of Creating Hulk Using Maya and ZBrush. 

In this new series of tutorials, I'll show you the entire process from start to finish and give you a detailed, in-depth lesson on what it takes to build a intuitive rig from scratch.

Through-out the project you'll learn how to construct the rig, skin the character of Hulk and set up controllers for each body part.

1. Creating the Leg Joint

Step 1

Start Maya and open the Hulk’s base model file which is provided with this tutorial.

Step 2

In the Layer Editor, create two layers- one for the body mesh and the other for the pant mesh.

Step 3

Jump in the side view and turn on Animation mode.

Step 4

To create the joints, go to Skeleton > Joint Tool.

Step 5

With the Joint Tool selected, start drawing bones from the hip area of the character and then by clicking at the knee, heel, foot and the toe tip. Press the Enter Key to finish drawing the joints. 

Step 6

Jump in the front view to place the joints inside the leg mesh. With the root joint selected, move it inside the leg mesh as shown in the following image.

Step 7

Rename the joints as L_Thigh_jnt01, L_Knee_jnt01, L_Heel_jnt01, L_Toe_jnt01 and L_ToeTip_jnt01.

2. Mirroring Leg Joints

Step 1

With the L_Thigh_jnt01 selected, go to Skeleton > Mirror Joint and click on the option box.

Step 2

In the Mirror Joint Options dialog box, first turn on the Mirror across YZ radio button. 

In the Replacement names for duplicated joints group, type (L_) inside the Search for: box. Just like this, the Replace with: box should be filled with (R_) for right leg joints. 

Click on the Mirror button.

Step 3

You can see the right leg joints are mirrored to the left leg and also renamed for each joint in sequence as R_Thigh_jnt01, R_Knee_jnt01, R_Heel_jnt01, R_Toe_jnt01 and R_ToeTip_jnt01.

3. Creating Root and Spine Joints

Step 1

Jump to the side view once again to create the spine joints. Go to Skeleton > Joint Tool to draw joints.

Step 2

Start drawing joints from the hip portion to the head including the skull.

Step 3

Rename the joints as Root_jnt01, Spine_jnt01, Spine_jnt02, Spine_jnt03, Spine_jnt04, Neck_jnt01, Head_jnt01 and HeadTip_jnt.

4. Creating Hand Joints

Step 1

For creating hand joints, jump in the top view and select the Joint Tool.

Step 2

With the Joint Tool selected, draw the four joints as shown in the following image.

Step 3

Jump into the Perspective viewport. In the perspective view, you can see all the hand joints are placed on the grid. Move and place the joints inside the hand mesh.  

Step 4

Press D key and adjust the joint of the hand as shown in the following image.

Step 5

In this way, arrange the joints inside the hand as shown in the following image. 

Step 6

To make the wrist twist joint, go to Skeleton > Insert Joint Tool.

Step 7

Insert a joint between elbow and wrist joints as shown in the following image.

5. Local Orientation of Joints

Step 1

Match the orientation of all hand joints in one direction flow. 

With the left hand joints selected, click on Components Selection mode icon and then click on Select Miscellaneous Components tool icon as shown in the following image.

Step 2

You'll notice the joints are showing local rotation axis in the centre of each one. You can see the joint's local rotation axis are not in one directional flow.

Step 3

With the Rotate tool selected, rotate the joint’s local direction as shown in the following image. 

Step 4

In this way, fix the rotation of all hand joints to local.

Step 5

After fixing the orientation, click on object selection mode button on the status bar.  

Step 6

Rename the joints as L_Clavicle_jnt01, L_Arm_jnt01, L_Elbow_jnt01, L_wristTwist_jnt01 and L_wrist_jnt01 as shown in the following image.

6. Creating Left Finger Joints

Step 1

Once again, go to Skeleton > Joint Tool.

Step 2

Being in the top view, draw fingers joints as shown in the following image.

Step 3

Jump in the perspective view and you will see all fingers joints are on the grid. You need to move and place the finger joints inside the mesh.

Step 4

With the move tool selected, move and place each joint inside the respective finger.

Step 5

For matching the orientation of the joints, repeat the process you have done for the hand. With all finger joints selected, click on both Components Selection mode and Select Miscellaneous Components tool icons one by one.

Step 6

With the rotate tool selected, rotate the thumb according to the joint’s local direction. 

Step 7

Following the same way, rotate the index finger also.

Step 8

In this way, the local direction orientation of all finger joints is completed. 

Step 9

Rename the thumb joints as L_Thumb_jnt01, L_Thumb_jnt02 and L_ThumbTip_jnt01.

Step 10

Rename the index finger's joints as L_Index_jnt01, L_Index_jnt02, L_Index_jnt03 and L_IndexTip_jnt01.

Step 11

Rename the middle finger's joints as L_Middle_jnt01, L_Middle_jnt02, L_Middle_jnt03 and L_MiddleTip_jnt01.

Step 12

Rename the ring finger's joints as L_Ring_jnt01, L_Ring_jnt02, L_Ring_jnt03 and L_RingTip_jnt01.

Step 13

Rename the pinky finger's joints as L_Pinky_jnt01, L_Pinky_jnt02, L_Pinky_jnt03 and L_PinkyTip_jnt01.

Step 14

After creating and renaming the fingers’ joints, select all fingers’ root joints as L_Thumb_jnt01, L_Index_jnt01, L_Middle_jnt01, L_Ring_jnt01, L_Pinky_jnt01 and L_wrist_jnt01.

Step 15

With all root joints selected, press Shift-left mouse button click, and select the Left_Hand_joint as shown in the image below. 

Start parenting the finger joints, because all the finger joints are not connected to the hand joints. So with the joints selected, press the P key to parent the joints.

7. Mirroring Hand Joints

Step 1

With L_Clavicle_jnt01 selected, go to Skeleton > Mirror Joint and click on its option box.

Step 2

In the Mirror Joint Options box, you will notice that the previous settings are filled in as well. So, click on the Mirror button to apply the mirror command.

Step 3

You can see the mirrored joints in right side with the naming as R_Clavicle_jnt01, R_Arm_jnt01, R_Elbow_jnt01 and so on.

8. Creating Jaw Joints

Step 1

To create jaw joints, go to Skeleton > Joint Tool once again.

Step 2

Draw the jaw joints as shown in the following image.

Step 3

Rename the joints as Jaw_jnt01 and JawTip_jnt01.

Step 4

In this way, the basic bone setup for all body parts has been done. The only thing left to do, is to parent all the separate joint parts.

9. Parenting Joints

Step 1

With L_Thigh_jnt01 and R_Thigh_jnt01 selected, press Shift key and then select Spine_jnt01. 

Step 2

With the joints selected, press the P key to parent them with the spine joint. Now all the joints are connected with the Root joint.  

Step 3

With L_Clavicle_jnt01 and R_Clavicle_jnt01 selected, press Shift key and then select Spine_jnt04. Then press P key to parent them with the spine.

Step 4

With Jaw_jnt01 selected, press Shift key and then select Head_jnt01. Then press P key to parent the jaw with the head joint.

Step 5

In this way, the parenting of all root joints with the respective and mutual joints has been completed.

Step 6

If you click on the pelvis joint, all joints get selected. It shows that they are now parented.

Step 7

Finally, select the joints hierarchy and create a new layer by the name of Joints. 

Conclusion

In the next part of the tutorial, I'll show how to apply IKs and various controls.