Now that we've learned how to rig an arm both with separated layers and with
puppet pins now it's time to try to rig an entire character. We need to separate
the artwork of the character as shown in the animation make sure each part of the
character is on a different layer and labeled with the file names that Duik uses.
Then import the file. Make sure to import it as Composition
Retain Layer Sizes. Double-click on the composition.
Now we have our composition and we have different layers. Notice on the face it
is made up of multiple pieces. Before we start select all of the layers of the
face and then right click to pre-compose, label it Head.
This allows us to enter into the Head composition and edit and animate these
separately. Before rigging it is a good idea to lock your artwork layers. That
way you do not accidentally move them during the rigging process.
Another important step is to change the composition settings
so it is easier to see the rigging process. Select a light gray.
Now select hominoid. Duik creates all of the structures needed.
This is arm, this is leg, this is leg 2, this is arm 2
and this is the spine. You can move them out of the way to make it
easier to rig. We will start with the characters right side. Starting with the
arm move the arm to where it pivots and select the next piece.
Put it at the elbow.
The next piece goes to the wrist and this goes at the fingertips.
To make it easier we can hide the arm tip, the hand, the forearm and the arm.
This makes everything easier to see. Now let's rig the leg.
Bring the leg structure to the thigh, then the knee,
then the ankle. This piece goes to the ball of the foot This rotates
around to the toes, and then finally this piece goes to the heel
of the foot this allows for the foot roll in Duik. Now we can hide
all of these structure pieces.
Now let's do the left arm. To make it easier to see we will hide the torso. Unlock the
layers and hide torso and hips. Make sure to lock them again. Grab the arm
structure and move it into position starting with the arm. Then move to the
elbow then the wrists. Finally the
the tip of the hand. We can hide these structures as well.
Next, let's do leg 2. Move it into position,
then the knee, then the ankle
and once again we will move to the ball of the foot,
then the toes and then the heel. Now we can hide all of
the leg 2 structures. This leaves us with the spine.
We can show our layers. Notice that I have a torso layer and a hips layer. Hips
Spine 1, Spine 2, Neck and Head. Often it is better to combine techniques so
I'm going to use puppet pins and bones for the torso. Solo the torso layer.
Select the Puppet Pin Tool. Here we need to place a pin for Spine, Spine 2 and
Neck. Expand the mesh.
Label the Puppet Pins by pressing ENTER.
I have Spine, Spine 2 and Neck. Select all of the puppet pins. Then in Links and Constraints,
Add Bones.
We can un-solo these layers. We can hide the visibility of the bones after we rig.
Lock the two layers.
Place the hip structure, then the spine 1 structure and the spine 2 structure.
Then the neck, then the head
and the head tip.
Now we can hide the spine structures. We can also hide the visibility of the
bones and we can lock the bones. Now all we have to do is parent each of
the layers and then auto rig the character.
To do this use the tilde key to expand your layers. To parent the layers you
need to unlock all of your layers. Use the pick whip tool to parent the layers.
The head goes to the head layer the hand goes to the hand layer, the forearm goes
to the forearm layer, the arm goes to the arm layer, the neck bone goes to the neck
layer, the spine 2 bone goes to the spine 2 structure, the spine goes to the
spine structure, the hips go to the hip structure. We do not need to parent the
torso because we made bones. The neck also goes to the neck structure. Hand 2
goes to the hand 2 structure, forearm 2 goes to the forearm 2 structure, arm 2
goes to the arm 2 structure, foot goes to the foot structure, calf goes to the
calf structure, thigh goes to the thigh structure, foot 2 goes
to the foot 2 structure ,calf 2 goes to the calf 2 structure, and thigh 2 goes
to the thigh 2 structure. Now everything is parented we can re-lock our layers.
While we are here we want to clean up our timeline by shying all of these
layers and structures. Press the tilde key. Now select all of the
structures, shift click to select and click Auto Rig.
Duik creates controllers Click the triangles to make the controllers
collapse, then press the tilde key to expand the layers and we will lock all
of our structures so we don't move them accidentally.
Then click the shy button to shy your layers. Press the tilde key again. Now we can
select all of our layers press P then shift R. Notice that the rotation values
are at 0 but the position values are very hard to remember. We can fix this by
clicking on the 0 button. Now Duik has created null objects and parented each
controller to that null object. Now to get back to a neutral position we can
just type 0, 0. We zoom in. We can now click on the controllers to see if our
rig works. Notice here that the rig is backwards. Press Command-Z, then in the
effects panel uncheck reverse. Now the hand moves as it should. Check
the other arm, okay. Now we will check the legs, that's good
and that's good. Now we can select all of the controllers,
click automations and walk cycle. Move out to two seconds, make the work area smaller.
And as you can see the character is walking backwards. To fix this go to main
parameters, walk cycle and change the speed to a positive value and now your
character will walk forwards. We will talk more about the automatic walk cycle
in future videos as well as how to clean up the character.
For example at the elbow here we could position the structures more accurately.