A question from a beginner---how to select "everything" ?!

[Anonymous]

Hi, 

I am new to Maya,  I have been following tutorials online.

It seems all very straight forward when people showing you how to do a walk cycle. The first thing is to clear the Script Editor, then select all the body parts, drag the information from script editor to "custom", hit "S" on key 1 and then start from there. But since I don't have the exact model the online tutors use, I randomly download some rigged characters from the internet, I found it is impossible to select "everything"! After I held ctrl and shift to select EVERY single part of the character (hair, toes, fingers, those round things in front of the knees, the yellow, the red, the blue.... everything!), when I try to move the character to another frame, his body is always stretched(something don't go with the rest of the body). I wonder what the problem is? And what exactly SHOULD I select in order to put every part of the body on Key 1?

Big big thanks, folks!!!!

Lauren

[Anonymous · Accepted solution]

Typically there are parts of a rig that are parts of the rig ( control curves) that are meant to be translated/rotated, and some that are not.
It sounds like you are getting double transformations.

1.explore the rig before blindly trying to animate
2. Typically you would find the main "movers"
For high level blocking; feet controls hand controls( if arms are in ik ) elbow and knee pole vector controls and finaly head and waist (cog) controls .grabbing these should move the body and everything should go with it if rigged in a standard way.
3. Never select geometry to animate ( if it's a good rig you shouldn't able to)
4.11 second club has some decent rigs under resources, have a look at them.
5. Create quick select sets for the curve controls you wish to revisit via selection
You can add to shelf for easy access

https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/maya/learn-explore/caas/CloudHelp/cloudhelp/2016/ENU/Maya/fil...


Finally, I really suggest you learn a little more about how rigs are constructed and animated.
Maybe watch a rigging tutorial so you can get some overview of controls which are designed to be animated and how.

[Anonymous]

Thank you so much! So I need to look for the "main move controls" and "group" them ? What about hair, fingers, toes these smaller part?

[Anonymous]

Hello!

The way I was taught is to first go to the script editor, delete its history there and now go to the "SHOW" tab on the top of your viewport, now uncheck polygons, joints and IK handles. All you should see are the curve controls. Click and drag across your screen in order to select ALL the controls on the rig.

Now back to your script editor, select everything in there and click the "same script to shelf" button, make it a MEL and name it.

Now when you click that button on the shelf at the top it should always select every single control! (:


I actually have a rigging course I made that is over 14+ hours and 120+ lessons that teach rigging from the very basics to more advances techniques!


I'll put the link down below, just in case you might be interested (:

MAYA RIGGING COURSE

[Anonymous]

Thank you so much Daniel! I will try that out!

I see you teach rigging, do you teach basic animation too?

Best regards,

Lauren

[Anonymous]

You don't group controls on a rig your self

I suggested "quick select sets" check the link I posted.

It's a quick way of taking what you have selected ( in your case curves) and it makes a little mel script button which gives you the option to add to shelf you are currently on

try to animate in passes, In a pose to pose method. Try to only focus on the big appendages and general pose first , and lock that down before animating smaller details like hair and toes in another pass once you have timing and poses looking good.

Also it may help to have auto key on when working with the pose to pose stage of blocking.

Below is a very general suggestion of workflow
Each animator works differently.
1. Block big shape/poses
2.refine timing and spacing
3.refine contact points to ground/ objects and add breakdowns
4.refine animation curves
5.tweak smaller details like hair toes etc
6. Refine curves/timing.

Remember to playblast often to critique your own work and make adjustments before moving to next stage.

[Anonymous]

You can email me at "[email protected]"! (:

There let me know how basic you want to learn for animation, I know the basics alright, but if you let me know what exactly you are wanting to learn we can try setting something up! 🙂