Hey there folks,
I just recently starting to get into "rigging" and was wondering why the Mirror Joints tool is mirroring but messing up the joints orientation. See video for clarification:
Maybe I am doing something wrong. Any input is appreciated.
Thomas P.
Interesting, I just did the mirror joint and it seems to work just fine. All i did was drag out some joints and mirror it to test as I dont really know what exactly you are trying to do. I dont seem to notice any problems with the video. Can you possibly attach the file so I can check it out?
EDIT : Now i see the problem and yes, i can confirm that mine are displaying inverted(?) as well. Im not sure its a big deal yet or not but ill look into it some more.
Thanks
That's expected/normal behavior. In fact, you have "Behavior" selected, and thus the joint orientations flip like that. If you rotate the top joints on both sides of the chain you will see why. They rotate in mirror/opposite of each other. This is normally what you want when mirroring the joints. It is how I work.
But, if you want them to be oriented the same, change it from "Behavior" to "Orientation"
Thanks matthew, i was wondering the same thing. It seemed fine to me. I was also just about to post about the behavior vs orientation. Thanks for clearing it up.
Bear in mind, if you do use "Orientation", they will then be EXACTLY the same as the other side. You'll need to go in and adjust the orientations on the mirrored side so that the X axis aims down the joint chains using this technique:
1. Unparent a joint.
2. Zero out the original parent joint's Joint Orient X,Y,Z in the attrib editor
2. Apply an aim constraint on the parent joint. (select child, then parent, the aim constrain) Be sure to adjust the Aim constrain options until you get the orientation correct. Specficially, make sure the Aim vector has a 1 in the X (first box) and probably a -1 value in the Y box of the Up vector.
3. Delete aim constraint (from outliner)
4. Copy Rotate X,Y,Z values of original parent joint to it's Joint Orient values
5. Zero out it's Rotate X,Y,Z values now.
6. Reparent the child joint to the parent (which should now be aiming at the child properly)
Note: The last (end) joint in a chain can easily be set to the same orientation as the parent joint by simply zeroing out the Joinht Orient X,Y,Z values.
see attached for orientation selected over behavior.
Just keep at it. Perserverance is the key to 3D. If you get turned off at every difficult moment you wouldnt get farther than making a cube. MayaLT makes it as easy as possible, but it takes time to get good with any tool. Good luck and dont be affraid to ask questions. There are also great resources available at the Autodesk Learning Channel on You Tube. You may want to look and see if there are some good rigging tutorials... my guess is there are more than you will have time to watch 😃
Here is one i think might be good for you...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHcVNBweIo8&list=PL9EF913A8175DD2EC
There are plenty to find throughout the learning channel and you tube in general. Also a lot of the normal Maya tutorials are useful as well.
Thanks Paul. Well I am not new to 3D at all really. Have been doing it for the past 15 years - just not in Maya or Maya LT that is 😉 Secondly, I am for the most part a prop and environment artist so I am really rather new to the whole Rigging aspect. So far I am enjoying it. Thanks for the link - I have watched his tutorials already 😉
Just checked out your website. Nice work 😃 I followed you on twitter too.
Yea, the Maya workflow is rather different than some of the others and new software always leaves you scratching your head because of slight differences. In the end though, I find Maya/MayaLT to be the best case scenario once you get to know it. Seeing your skill in modeling, you will do fine once you get the basics down.
Well, thats great to hear. 😃
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