Character Rigging Sequence: Part 4 of 6: The Wrist and Fingers

This tutorial focuses on creating a rigging system for a bone system of a simple 3D character. By using IK Solvers and the Reaction Manager, I create a wrist rigs that control both the wrist and the finger movements. If there is any confusing regarding the Parameter Editor or Reaction Manager, feel free to post a question.

I apologize the video quality is not great, I plan to re-record these videos soon. Rate and Subscribe for more information about design software programs and animation.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• 3ds
• max
• 3d
• character
• animation
• creation
• rig
• rigging
• bone
• systems
• IK
• Solver
• Inverse
• kinematics
• wrist
• fingers
• shoulder
• linking
• parameter
• editor
• reaction
• manager

[AntiChristCrispees]

Alright, so I'm having some major problems with this.

When I add finger bones I don't have plain rotation y as an option. I have inital pose and keyframe XYZ. No matter which one I choose, when I create my states, only the first bone in the chain (the knuckle, I guess) actually acknowledges that there was a state before or a state after. The other bones stay stuck in whatever state I just posed them in when I scroll up or down in my parameter. Any clue what is going on?

[jonjd46]

@AntiChristCrispees Sometimes this happens. When doing bones like this in Max, Max tends to glich often. I've made lots of finger bones and this happens. Best bet, start over and try again. Sometimes if you close Max and restart, it will fix the problem. OR, if you scroll to the bottom of the reaction manager, you can adjust the bone movements in a curve editor. It may require some finessing, but could help out.

[JonShawVids]

Hey jonjd46, Ive been following these vids and everything has worked great so far. My character has his arms at about a 30 degree angle at his sides. When I create the finger bones and move them into place in my mesh, I have to rotate the bones in order to get the same rotational direction as my base mesh. Problem comes when I rotate the bones. I rotate them on one axis and when I play the animation back, it rotates on two axis so it doesn't look natural. Anything you can think of? Thanks!

[decamhian06]

@JonShawVids I'm having the same exact issue. Everything previously has been perfect, but this is a bit of a show stopper, and a little frustrating. Any help on this issue would be fantastic.

[jonjd46]

@decamhian06 It sounds like your controls are off a bit. In your Reaction Manager, make sure the lines only move on one axis. There will be different colored lines for different each different axis. If this doesn't help, check to make sure the rotations are locked. You should only be able to rotate the fingers on one axis. If they rotate on more than one, you need to go back and check the linkage. Fingers are the hardest part of the rig, and they always take a long time to work. Good luck.

[jonjd46]

@JonShawVids If you have any more trouble, let me know and I can see if I can replicate your problem.

[LordOdin2008]

Can you please remake the video? The stuttering is seizure-inducing and does nothing for following the instructions. Basically, people are listening to audio and trying to match up to fuzzy pictures. Luckily your instructions are easy to follow and listen to.

[skylight102]

Hi I know this is late, but why isn't my wrist control appearing in my reaction manager? It's only the foot curl's :( thanks for the tutorial!

[poy360]

i hid the ik goal now i cant find the ik display rollout to enable it, how do i enable it again?

[bestman0111]

Great Tut! but i have a slight problem after making the pointer finger movements, i put the custom attributes slider back to 0 like u said and only the part of the finger that is closest to the hand moves, the point and the mid section of the finger stay exactly the same as i moved them and do not react when i put the slider back to 0. Do you know why??

[Gsxr4life33]

thank you soooooo much for this tutorial.

i was about to yank my hair out tryna figure out finger rigging

this helped out ALOT.

[richardhaw]

im so dizzy...

[jetsu115]

@jetsu115 P.S is there a way to rotate the fingers AND affect the attribute holder by rotating the first finger bone without having to go to ur attribute holder all the time?

[jetsu115]

@jonjd46 hey there jonjd i have a problem thats been driving me nuts, i followd all the steps but when i get to the rotation of the fingers things really starts to screw up for me, Fist i add the controll shape as master in the reaction manager then i added the fingers in as rotation y, as soon as i set my state from 100-200 and turn it back to zero the shape and all the fingers just rotate in every direction that i dont want them to and i mean really retarded direction.

[studionightbird0]

this is rediculas. I've learnt so much in under an hour thanks so much...Hate the frame jumps though