Creating Games with Unreal Engine, Substance Painter, & Maya: Models, Textures, Animation, & Blueprint [ PART I ]

Creating Games with Unreal Engine, Substance Painter, & Maya FIGURE 10.37 IK elbow control setup. Modify → Match Transformations → Match all Transformations. Select the group and translate it back so it sits behind the elbow. Change the shape of the controller as shown in Figure 10.37. Next, let’s set up the IK control system for the arm. Step 18: Create the IK Handle. Go to the rigging module, and then Skeleton → Create IK handle. Use the default settings. Click on the left_drv_shoulder, and then left_drv_wrist (isolate them so you can easily click on them). This will create an IK handle. Rename it to left_wrist_IK. Step 19: Parent the IK handle to the IK wrist controller. Select the left_wrist_IK in the outliner and middle mouse drag it onto the left_ IK _wrist_ctrl. Now left_ IK _wrist_ctrl should be driving the IK system. Step 20: Set up the IK elbow control. Select the left_ IK _elbow_ctrl you created in the outline. Hold down Ctrl and select the left_wrist_IK, and go to Constraint → Pole Vector. This pole vector control should now be able to control the IK elbows position. Step 21: Apply wrist rotation control. The last thing we need to do is add an orient constraint between the left_ IK _wrist_ctrl and the left_ drv_wrist joint. Select the left_ IK _wrist_ctrl, 426

Rigging and then shift select the left_drv_wrist joint and select Constrain → orient constraint. Now that we have the IK created, one of the last things we need to do is constrain the new duplicate arm driver joints to the original binding joints. What we’ll be doing is parent constraining our binding joints to the new driver joints. Step 22: Parent Constraint the binding joints to the driver joints. Select the new left_drv_shoulder joint and shift select the left_shoulder binding joint. Select Constrain → Parent Constraint to apply a parent constraint to the binding joint, go ahead, and do the same thing for the elbow and the wrist joints. Now that we have our arm rigs done, we need to clean up the groups in the outliner. Step 23: Group all the controllers. Select left_fk_shoulder_ctrl_group, left_ IK _wrist_ ctrl_group, and left_ IK _elbow_ctrl_group. Group them and name the new group left_arm_ctrl_group. Step 24:Group the controllers and the driver joints. Select left_arm_ctrl_group and left_drv_arm_ group. Group them and name the new group left_arm_rig_group (Figure 10.38). You will need to repeat the entire Tutorial 10.3 for the right arm. Tutorial 10.4: Finger Controls Now that we have the arm completed, we need to create controls for each finger joint. Step 1: Create the fk controllers. Create the fk controllers for the fingers the same way we create the controllers for the arm. You can think FIGURE 10.38 The final hierarchy of the left arm. 427

Creating Games with Unreal Engine, Substance Painter, & Maya of the fingers as mini arms. Don’t forget to parent the controllers to their correct hierarchy the same way we did for the arm controllers (do not create the IK ones). Step 2: Parent constraint the joints. Once you’re done with all of the fingers’ controls, you’ll need to parent constraint the joint to each corresponding finger controller. This is the same process that we’ve been doing for the other controls. The finger joints should now rotate as you rotate the controls. Step 3: Group the controllers. Next, let’s group all finger groups under one group and call it left_hand_group. This group should hold all your finger controls and their group (Figure 10.39). FIGURE 10.39 Final finger control hierarchy. 428

Step 4: Make the hand follow the wrist. The last Rigging step of this process is to parent constrain the left_hand_grp to the left_drv_wrist joint. This 429 will make sure that the group follows along with the arm motion. Tutorial 10.5: Clavicle and Body Controls Since we have the driver joints and the binding joints for the arm, we need to do a similar setup for the clavicles. Step 1: Create the driver joint. To start things off, we need to duplicate the left_clavicle joint. This will duplicate the joints underneath. We only need the clavicle and shoulder, and go ahead and delete everything else. Once those are deleted, rename the joints to left_drv_clavicle and left_drv_shoulder. Group left_drv_clavicle and rename the group to left_drv_clavicle_group. Finally, unparent the group (Figure 10.40). Step 2: Creating Clavicle controls. Now we need to create controls for the clavicles using the same method as before. Create a NURBS circle, and group it. Move the group to the position of the clavicle joint by matching all transformations. Name the controller, and the group following the safe convention we’ve been using. Finally, group the top group of the controller and the driver joint to a new group called left_clavicle_rig_ group (Figure 10.41). Step 3: Create an IK handle. Next, we are going to create an IK handle to animate the clavicles when the arm is in IK mode. Go to Skeleton → Create IK handle□. In the Tool Setting window, change the Current Solver setting to Single-Chain Solver. Click on left_drv_clavicle, then left_drv_shoulder to create an IK handle and name it left_clavicle_IK (Figure 10.42). FIGURE 10.40 Left clavicle and shoulder joint setup and hierarchy.

Creating Games with Unreal Engine, Substance Painter, & Maya FIGURE 10.41 Clavicle rig groups and hierarchy. FIGURE 10.42 Clavicle IK and joint setup. Step 4: Parent left_clavicle_IK to the left_clavicle 430 controller (Figure 10.43). Step 5: Constraint the original joints. Next, we need to have these driver joints drive the binding joints. Select the left_drv_clavicle joint and then shift select the left_clavicle joint. Do a Constrain → Parent Constraint. Step 6: Constraint the shoulder driver joints. Next, we need to select the left_drv_shoulder of the

Rigging FIGURE 10.43 Left clavicle IK and controller hierarchy. clavicle driver joints and then add select the left_drv_arm_group and do another parent constraint. This will allow the driver joints from the arm to follow the clavicle. Step 7: Constraint the shoulder FK controllers. Select the left_drv_shoulder of the clavicle driver joints and then add select the left_fk_ shoulder_ctrl_group, and do one more parent constraint. Step 8: Make the clavicle follow the chest. Now, we need to make the clavicle group follow the chest control. Select the chest joint, and then shift select the left_clavicle_rig_group, and do one last Constrain → Parent Constraint. Now you have done the left clavicle, do the same thing for the right clavicle. Now it’s time to create the root and spine controllers. Remember, the controls will all need groups. Step 9: Create the hip controller (NURBS circle), name it, group it, and rename the group as well. Step 10: Grab the group and match all transformations to the hip joint. Step 11: Parent constrain the hip joint to the hip controller. Step 12: Repeat this same process for the joints that lead all the way up to the head (Figure 10.44). Figure 10.44 Body controller setup. Gun Joint We now need to add one last joint that will be used for the weapon in the game. 431

Creating Games with Unreal Engine, Substance Painter, & Maya FIGURE 10.44 Body controller setup. Step 13: Select Skeleton → Create joints. Create a joint at the origin and then translate it inside the gun and rename the joint to gun_joint. Step 14: Bind the geometry of the gun to gun_joint. Select the gun geometry, add select the gun_ joint, and do a Skin → Bind Skin. Step 15: Paint the weight of the gun so that the gun_joint has complete control of the gun. Final Hierarchy Now that we have all the controls created, we just need to clean them up in the outliner and make sure that they’re placed in the correct order and under the proper groups. Step 16: Create the world controller. Create a new controller at the origin and rename it to world_ ctrl. Group the world controller and rename it to Ellen_rig_grp. 432

Rigging Step 17: Parent other controllers and driver joints under the world controller. The world controller should be the root of the hierarchy. Parent all the controllers and driver joints under the world controller (Figure 10.45). FIGURE 10.45 Final hierarchy of the whole rig. 433

Creating Games with Unreal Engine, Substance Painter, & Maya Conclusion We have finished our rig, but bear in mind that this setup is the bare minimum of rigging. We ripped off everything we could to keep rigging simple for you. However, if you want to have more advanced rigs, there are plenty of auto rigs out there. Plug-ins like Advanced Skeleton, Rapid Rigs, can make all the controls for you in a matter of minutes. Maya has its own auto rig as well located at Control → Create Control Rig. There are more things to explore in the world of rigging. To name a few, we did not do any facial expression controls, and we cannot even move the eyes or open the mouth. We also did not set up any stretching. However, we should always avoid overdoing the rig. If we don’t need facial expressions, it makes total sense not to rig the face. Rigging can be super confusing, so if you don’t understand some of the steps, try to read through them again. Also, if you don’t feel like rigging at all, we have a finished rig file for you, and you can work the animations with it in the next chapter. See you there! 434