Rigging a Character
A simple guide to rigging a 3D character.
Hello there! I am Lin Yibin, a 3D Artist from Keio-NUS Cute Centre.
I’ve come up with a short and hopefully simple guide on how I usually rig my characters in Maya to get it ready for Unity.
Starting with your character
First off, we can start with a character you’ve modeled, or a character from Adobe Fuse. It’s optimal if they’re in T-pose or A-pose.
There are certain guidelines to follow in terms of topology, especially around the joints, for creating a character that you want to rig. Below are a few examples of how you would want your geometry to look like. This is especially important if you’re rigging the actual skin of the character, instead of the clothes.
Now, there are two ways of rigging. One is to set it up yourself, or the easier method, which is to set up the rig in Mixamo using their Auto-Rigger.
Setting up your own rig
Under the Rigging tab, go to Skeleton>Create Joints.
We start off with the hips, and move up the spine. The hierarchy should go like this:
Hips > Spine > Neck > Head
From there, I start creating the joints for the right side of the body. Usually, the hierarchy for the limbs go like this:
Upper Leg> Knee> Ankle> Ball> Toe
Clavicle> Upper Arm> Elbow> Hand> Fingers
Then, I select the joints for the right side of the body, and use Mirror Joints.
Once that is done, your joint hierarchy should look something like this.
The next step is to bind your meshes onto your rig.
Select your hip joint and all your meshes, and go to Skin > Bind Skin.
Your character model is now rigged to the joints.
Auto-Rigger on Mixamo
Alternatively, another way you can rig you character is with the Auto-Rigger on Mixamo. Once you feel that character is optimized for rigging, export it as an .obj. Next, we will proceed with using the Auto-Rigger in Mixamo.
Upload your character file onto site.
Follow the instructions to set up the rig.
Once that is done, download your rigged model in .fbx format and select the “Original Pose”pose.
The model is now ready to be brought into Maya.
Skinning in Maya
Once I have my skinned character, I pose the character into many different extreme poses. This is to expose the areas that need some redistribution on the weights. They are usually places where the body bends(eg. shoulders, elbows, knees, fingers). Below are some examples of what areas need touching up.
Fix these areas by repainting the weights affecting the mesh. Use your body as a reference! The fingers for example, should not bend so smoothly. After touching up the weights on the fingers, it now looks like this:
When you are done, your character should look good in all the poses you have put them in.
Select all your meshes and your joint hierarchy and Export Selection. Export the file as an .fbx and make sure the Animation box is checked. Your model is now ready to be used in Unity!