Hey there, so I’m starting to do the constraints for this weird alien dragon-like creature based on Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern novels. (It’s for personal fan-art projects.)
I know there are a lot of dragon models out there on the internet, and tutorials, but just haven’t unearthed a tut that directly elaborates specifically on these questions.
On to question #1:
(More or less solved, but you are still welcome to add thoughts!)
I followed the instructions in this video (http://vimeo.com/30078317) exactly. The video is demonstrating the rigging of a human leg, however, (edited more info here) and quadrupeds aren’t plantigrade, their “heel” is part of their leg, adding a joint. I want all the same control, to roll the foot for walking, and tilt it for uneven terrain, but I had to move the IK and constraints down one bone in the chain. This isn’t a problem, except I’d like another pole-target for the knee. I may not need it but would like to try. What’s the best way to do this without affecting the other constraints?
Question #2: (Solved myself!)
In the video at 21:10 he starts to pose the foot’s main IK control. What type of selection is he using? It’s not regular rotating I think. Green and red “Christmas arrows” appear. Sorry, I just jumped in, there are basics with the interface I don’t know yet. The whole point is that parenting the main IK to the pole target makes the legs and knees follow the way the foot is turned. Handy! If I regular rotate, the ankle twists, though I can see the parenting is working more or less - the heel follows the foot.
Edit: Looks like I had to change my cursor from “bounding box center” to “3D cursor!” I am still learning about the functions of the cursors, and got ahead of myself there. It was a basic thing so it wasn’t mentioned in various selection methods for posing, so it was hard to find when I’m looking at rigging. Hope this is useful to someone else who, like me, jumps ahead. I now know that when posing, it is very important to switch from bounding box to 3D cursor, maybe I will discover others. It’s the difference between turning a foot to point the way you want, or twisting the ankle hideously!)
See, I get twisty-ness:
What it’s supposed to do:
Not urgent but helpful brainstorms for wing rigging that I’d love thoughts on:
o Best way to make wing membranes dynamic. (Respond to gravity etc. like animating some cloth and other things that respond to wind and gravity.)
o Having wings with tendons that shrink and expand with elasticity like this:
(I am not using pterosaur style wings but the membrane acts the same. I got the images from here: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1875306X08000063)
The style of wing I am going to be rigging is actually like this:
(With the tip of the front wing-finger closer to the second, and merged by tendons.)
Anyway, just welcoming thoughts on this, not necessarily answers to ALL my questions. Whatever you think will help!
So your advice does help.