Keywords: Maya, Rigging

Joints Notes

How to create root joint

Rigging (F3) -> Skeleton -> Create Joints -> Left click anywhere in viewport.

If you left click in viewport multiple times after click Skeleton -> Create Joints, joints would be connected automatically as a joints chain.
If you want to create multiple joint independently (not connected). You need to click Skeleton -> Create Joints everytime when you clicked in viewport.

Just right click in viewport to quit Create Joints mode. The first right-click would create a last joint.

How to connect joints

First select source joints (as Child), then select target joints (as Parent), then: Skeleton -> Connect Joint.

Connecting Maya Joints in a Min
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=depyrdgYSgo

How to create child joint under selected joint.

If want to create a child for a specified joint, do steps like this:
Menu: Skeleton -> Create Joints, then select the joint (e.g. Joint A) which you want to create child under it in Outliner Panel, then click in Viewport to create Joint B, thus Joint B was the child of Joint A.

How to change hierarchy of child joint

As shown in following image, Joint BBB is a child of ROOT, and BBB has no child joints:

If want to change hierarchy of BBB as a child of AAA, do setps follows:

  1. Create a child joint under BBB:
  2. First select BBB, then select ROOT, Skeleton -> Disconnect Joint:
  3. Now BBB would be a new root joint:
  4. First select BBB, then select CCC, Skeleton -> Connect Joint:
  5. Then BBB would be a child of AAA which is the parent of CCC:

There’s no way to change hierarchy of BBB without disconnecting BBB firstly, otherwise you would get a error:
// Error: file: D:/Autodesk/Maya2020/scripts/others/doDisconnectJoint.mel line 32: Cannot disconnect the end joint.

How to delete joint

Note:

  • You can only remove one joint at a time.
  • You can not remove a root joint.
  • You can remove joints from the skeleton of a character with a bound skin without having to detach its skin.

To remove a joint

  1. Select the joint that you want to remove.
  2. In the Rigging menu set (press F3), select Skeleton > Remove Joint.

Reference:
https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/maya/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2020/ENU/Maya-CharacterAnimation/files/GUID-E4A3348B-3499-4FF1-A971-A37E515B5C10-htm.html

Skin Weights Notes

How to copy Skin Weights

To copy all smooth skin weights from one bound mesh to another

  1. Do one of the following:
    • Select the smooth skin polygonal mesh (or group of meshes) you want as the source skin, and then select the polygonal mesh (or group of meshes) you want as the destination skin.
    • Select the vertices you want as the source, then select the vertices you want as the target.
  2. Select Skin > Edit Smooth Skin > Copy Skin Weights.
  3. Do the following:
    • Set the Surface Association options appropriately based on the type of correlation you want to occur. For most situations, the default setting of Closest point on surface works best. If your characters differ widely in scale or proportion you may wish to use the UV space setting.
    • Set the Influence Association options appropriately based on what you believe will provide the best correlation between the joints. For most situations, the default setting of Closest joint works best. If the skeleton hierarchies in your scene are identical, the One to one setting can be useful.
  4. Do one of the following:
    • Click Copy to copy the smooth skin weights from the source skin to the destination skin.
    • Click Apply to copy the smooth skin weights from the source skin to the destination skin.
    • Click Close to close the options window without copying the skin weights.

Reference:
https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/maya-lt/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2015/ENU/MayaLT/files/Skinning-Copy-smooth-skin-weights-htm.html

Issues

Cannot connect sibling joints

Case:
There’re some error messages while connecting joints.

Error: Cannot connect sibling joints.

Or:

Error: line 0: The child joint must be a root joint.

Caused by:
Maybe it’s a bug of Maya.

Solution:
Restart Maya, or reimport asset(e.g. FBX) in a new scene, or create a new child joint in parent joints, then connect target joints and source joints again.

Unable to find the bind pose for : / test_group / root_joint. Use the DAG node current transform.

Error log on exporting control rig as FBX:

Unable to find the bind pose for :  / test_group / root_joint. Use the DAG node current transform.

Solution:

To nuke all of the bindposes:

  1. In outliner go to Display and uncheck DAG Objects Only
  2. Then in the search bar look for bind that should show every bindpose in the scene, delete them all.
  3. Clear the search bar, and turn on DAG Objects Only again.

Rebuild the bindpose:
Then select every joint in your skeleton and execute command dagPose -bp -save (In the MEL bar, bottom lower left corner type command hit enter).

https://polycount.com/discussion/209134/maya-unable-to-find-the-bind-pose-when-exporting-to-fbx

Tutorials

Youtube Tutorials

Intro to Rigging in Maya 2019
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wvdQy2Fdhw

Autodesk Maya 2018 - Simple Character Rigging Part 1 of 3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOokoFED7QE

Rigging in Maya | Fundamentals
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urC_TBQQA7o&list=PLgala72Uap1qKmxnWBEneWOUifKrh8mk_

Rigging in Maya | Basics
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzHn_4ByyjY&list=PLgala72Uap1oR7E5iIfnuSLpuVY49BwHu

Rigging in Maya | Intermediate
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=So92TVHSB1g&list=PLgala72Uap1pe2JPK-J6OvBkakbNAsdmr

Rigging In Maya | Advanced
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCxftP5dLQc&list=PLgala72Uap1obdLafPGyCWOpCBnPQJLo8

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