Skis part 1: Creating
the skis
Page 1 2
PAGE TWO - Parenting - Constraints - Conclusion
The next step is to parent everything together.
- Make foot_L_rt parent of ski_L_rt.
- Make heel_L parent of nul_ski_L.
- Repeat the previous steps for the right feet.
- Make ski_topnul parent of heel_L and heel_R.
- Make CONST parent of ski_topnul.
The role of CONST is to be parent of all the constraint objects. If you look at the rig_final scene, you'll see that CONST is not only the parent of the skis, but also of the wrist circles (that act exactly as the ankle circles) and the various upvector nulls. This allow to keep the control objects their own hierarchy, without being incluenced by what happens to the rest of the rig.
CONST is parented to GOD. GOD is the ultimate supreme null you can have in any character setup. It is parent of everything: the envelope, the rig, the control objects, and certain accessories that the character might be holding. We will look in Part 2 (Cycling the Skis) what the other control objects (like BODACT, CUBE, ACTOR, the fingers rotation circles, etc) do. I will just say here that branch-selecting GOD and moving it will move everything related to the character.
Here we will use only position constraints. So once you created one, you can click with MMB on the Constraint menu to call the position constraint function.
Select nul_ski_L, do Motion > Constraint > Position, and pick heel_L. This constraint will cause the whole ski structure to follow the ankle circle when you move it, without having to branch select the ankle circle. To this for the other foot as well.
Now we will constraint the several foot parts to the ski, using Position constraints only.
- leg_L_eff (the leg effector) is constrained to ski_L_eff (the ski effector).
- toes_L (the toes of the character rig) is constrained to ski_L_bone3 (the last bone of the ski).
- foot_L_eff (the foot effector) is constrained to ski_L_bone2 (the second bone of the ski).
(Don't be confused by the above picture. I placed the ski lower to be able to show the constraints. Using the Schematic View is the best way to define those constraints).
So that is pretty much about the setup process, you can proceed with the next tutorial, Cycling the Skis.
Previous: Initial setup, Building the bones and Adding the other control objects
