Creature WIP
This is part of the manticore rig for a new show piece I'm working on, it should be properly animated and include Houdini effects. I've been working on this for a while now, I daresay the rigging is almost finished. All I need to do is to add effects on this creature ( model courtesy of Emmanuel Guevarra. )
The way I rigged this wing is to first rig a single feather. It only needs three joints. Save this maya scene as featherA.ma, then import this file any number of times, better yet, reference it.
Using a new maya scene and having a curve, this is the curve that all the feathers are going to be imported/ referenced on. use pointOnCurveInfo node to get the position of the curve, make sure to turn on percentage. We know that the parametric value of the curve is from 0 to 1, so turn on the percentage in the node.
using a loop based on the number of feathers being imported, using a percentage calculation, we can determine each position on a curve:
numberOfFeathers= 27
for index in range( numberOfFeathers ):
Length= 1.0
number= ( Length/ numberOfFeathers * index )
normalizedNumber= ( number/ Length )
normalizedNumber returns the value that you need to plug into a pointOnCurveInfo parametric value, each number is unique by how many feathers you import/ reference. You can use this for a nice, even distribution of values and can be used for other methods.
Finally, you can bind the curve to roughly 6 joints. The advantage to this is that you can rebuild any number of feathers without changing the number of wing joints.
Rotations matter, so use the tangentConstraint on the imported feathers' control groups. Duplicate your curve and raise it above your original curve and bind it to your wing joint. Build the locators along the curve to match the number of feathers using the percentage math. Have those locators be the objectUp for every tangentConstraint you have and Voila, you have a very stable wing rig.
The way I rigged this wing is to first rig a single feather. It only needs three joints. Save this maya scene as featherA.ma, then import this file any number of times, better yet, reference it.
Using a new maya scene and having a curve, this is the curve that all the feathers are going to be imported/ referenced on. use pointOnCurveInfo node to get the position of the curve, make sure to turn on percentage. We know that the parametric value of the curve is from 0 to 1, so turn on the percentage in the node.
using a loop based on the number of feathers being imported, using a percentage calculation, we can determine each position on a curve:
numberOfFeathers= 27
for index in range( numberOfFeathers ):
Length= 1.0
number= ( Length/ numberOfFeathers * index )
normalizedNumber= ( number/ Length )
normalizedNumber returns the value that you need to plug into a pointOnCurveInfo parametric value, each number is unique by how many feathers you import/ reference. You can use this for a nice, even distribution of values and can be used for other methods.
Finally, you can bind the curve to roughly 6 joints. The advantage to this is that you can rebuild any number of feathers without changing the number of wing joints.
Rotations matter, so use the tangentConstraint on the imported feathers' control groups. Duplicate your curve and raise it above your original curve and bind it to your wing joint. Build the locators along the curve to match the number of feathers using the percentage math. Have those locators be the objectUp for every tangentConstraint you have and Voila, you have a very stable wing rig.
