Rigging a Quadruped in Maya

Learn how to rig a four-legged creature (aka a quadruped) in Maya.

Learn how to rig a four-legged creature (aka a quadruped) in Maya using a fun example: man's best friend. Jason Baskin shows how to rig an entire dog mesh from start to finish in this project-based course. First, you'll learn how to create a basic skeleton, positioning joints to deform the mesh at specific locations and adding controls for the head, neck, and ears. You'll then rig the hind legs, adding subfoot pivots that allow the dog's legs to connect to the ground when walking and running. Jason also covers more advanced techniques, such as creating a "stretchy" back and head for more energetic animation and controlling the dog's tags with dynamics. Finally, you'll learn how to bind the mesh to the skeleton, and test the rig by putting it through a simple animation.

Introduction

• Welcome
• What you should know before watching this course
• Using the exercise files

1. Creating the Basic Body Rig

• Creating the skeleton
• Rigging the head, neck, and ears
• Rigging the front legs
• Rigging the hind legs
• Adding subfoot pivots to the front feet
• Adding subfoot pivots to the back feet
• Rigging the back
• Working with expressions

2. Adding Advanced Functionality

• Adding extended twist functionality to the back
• Rigging a "stretchy" back
• Rigging "stretchy" legs
• Switching leg stretch off and on
• Creating an FK/IK tail
• Controlling the dog tag with dynamics
• Making the rig scalable

3. Attaching the Skin

• Binding the mesh to the skeleton and painting skin weights
• Refining skin weights
• Testing and finalizing the rig

Conclusion

• Next steps