This course will teach the viewer how to rig a mountain lion harnessing the power of Enhanced IK in Maya.

In this course, Farley Chery will lead the viewer through the rigors of creating a control rig for one of the great cats using Enhanced IK in Maya 2012. While the course centers on a puma/panther these techniques work on all the great cats and any quadruped with similar anatomy. Much like his prior tutorial Motion Flow Rigging in Maya, and much like the first amazing techniques are unveiled. New ideas on internal automation principles will be explored and old ones expanded on. The artist will create a robust rig with a more straight forward workflow then the previous course, while still providing examples of problem solving techniques that arise when creating a complex rig. The course focuses on presenting new or different techniques wherever possible for comparison with more established systems. Rigging one of the great cats with enhanced IK makes for a very flexible control rig. The base system of Enhanced IK though is versatile enough to use with many other methodologies in Maya. Enhanced IK greatly improves the functionality of Inverse Kinematics in Maya. By the end of this course you will be armed with techniques to make efficient and robust rigs for feline and canine quadrupeds, utilizing an enhanced control rig that is ready to be modified and finalized with your preferred hierarchies and dynamic parenting setups.

Lesson Outline (52 lessons)


1. Introduction and overview 1 min. 2 sec.



2. Taking a look at our enhanced IK setup in the hind legs 7 min. 8 sec.



3. Comparing FK systems 9 min. 54 sec.



4. Beginning the no flip knee 19 min. 33 sec.



5. Creating our measure tool 10 min. 8 sec.



6. No flip knee hierarchy for auto swivel hips 12 min. 21 sec.



7. Finishing the knee and pole vector hiearchies 17 min. 23 sec.



8. Finishing the no flip knee and understanding the PV buffer 7 min. 39 sec.



9. Exporting out our mechanism 10 min. 41 sec.



10. Theory adding FK controls 10 min. 33 sec.



11. Creating and export the right Pole Vector 7 min. 33 sec.



12. Creating a squash and stretch spine 10 min. 45 sec.



13. The nSpine 7 min. 4 sec.



14. Troubleshooting and looking at other options for spinal controls 15 min. 30 sec.



15. Troubleshooting and looking at other options for spinal controls (part 2) 9 min. 52 sec.



16. Spine revision using components instead of cluster for control 13 min. 29 sec.



17. Adding in spinal rotations 12 min. 49 sec.



18. Finishing the rotation controls and adding a kill switch 14 min. 15 sec.



19. Completing the spine tool and prepping for the tail 12 min. 32 sec.



20. Completing the tail setup 13 min. 45 sec.



21. We begin our automatic hip orientation rig 13 min. 46 sec.



22. Finishing up the automatic hip setup 20 min. 39 sec.



23. Introduction to our model 6 min. 21 sec.



24. Inserting the Spine and Tail 10 min. 38 sec.



25. Editing the inserted setups 5 min. 6 sec.



26. Anatomy of a cat and joint placement 15 min. 24 sec.



27. Completing joint placement 13 min. 36 sec.



28. Inserting our no flip knees and automatic hip tools 6 min. 23 sec.



29. Adding rear IK handles and controlling stretch 10 min. 40 sec.



30. Cleaning up the tail and prepping for the creation of the neck 13 min. 24 sec.



31. Review of the neck and creation controls 9 min. 49 sec.



32. Review of the skinned model 8 min. 35 sec.



33. Enhancing the useful output from our Ik handles 20 min. 11 sec.



34. Adding toe movements and troubleshooting 10 min. 27 sec.



35. Adding in knee compensation for foot swivel 9 min. 13 sec.



36. Wrapping up the hind paw 15 min. 2 sec.



37. Beginning the foreleg controls 9 min. 33 sec.



38. Building a pose space tool to automate the scapula 14 min.



39. Finishing the automatic scapula and adding our controller 12 min. 11 sec.



40. Adding rotational elements to our controller 10 min. 16 sec.



41. Adding enhanced IK controls for the foreleg 16 min. 27 sec.



42. Looking at the buffer group and discussing other rigging options 11 min. 12 sec.



43. Wrapping up the neck controls 14 min. 32 sec.



44. Implementing our motion flow hips 23 min. 5 sec.



45. Setting up the chest controls 6 min. 1 sec.



46. Setting up the COM and COG 11 min.



47. Implementing the no flip pole vector into our foreleg 7 min. 31 sec.



48. Parenting the head 6 min. 50 sec.



49. Quick cleanup of the rig 6 min. 33 sec.



50. Finishing up the tail 15 min. 13 sec.



51. Tips to improve the rig 8 min. 43 sec.



52. Final rig tests 13 min. 44 sec.


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