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[Music]
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okay so it's about time we started to
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tackle some of the systems which the
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controls will drive
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as this is a game rig we want the base
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skeleton to be left as clean as possible
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so what we're going to do is create a
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series of control joints
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what these are are copies of parts of
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the skeleton which the main controls
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will be connected to
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these will then drive the main skinned
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skeleton
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this makes for a cleaner rig
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especially when it comes to exporting
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it can also give you the option to
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quickly detach the rig if needed
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so first we need a copy of each section
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of the skeleton
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let's hide the controls for now
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and then select and duplicate the root
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joint
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you can press ctrl and d to do this
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move it out of the hierarchy so we can
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work on it
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now unparent the legs
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and the arms
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and the pelvis
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we don't need the root or cog joints so
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delete those
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you can also delete the head and eye
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joints
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and the clavicle joints
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now let's hide the main skeleton
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let's quickly remove these from the bind
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joint selection set
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they are in here because these are
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duplicates of the main skeleton
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we can just right click on the selection
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set
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and go to sets
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remove from selection set
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and then select buying joints
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that's better
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we don't want those accidentally being
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selected and skinned
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okay now we need to simplify the limbs
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we don't need the finger joints so
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delete those
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and also remove the twist joints
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let's update the other arm
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with the legs we are going to keep the
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toe joints for now
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this is so we can blend between ik and
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fk with them something we don't need to
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do with the fingers
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not on this rig anyway
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we do need to remove the twist joints
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though
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so there we have the main areas of the
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skeleton
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let's change the color of them because
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they still have the color coding from
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when they were originally skinned
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we can do this with the wireframe color
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tool
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select the root joint of each hierarchy
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and go to display wireframe colour
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if we click default
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you see the joint colours have now been
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removed and they are back to the default
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colour
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we could however give them a new colour
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purple maybe
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okay that looks good
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you can also change this drop down box
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from index to rgb so you can specify a
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custom colour instead
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this is exactly the same as if you were
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dictating a color for a control
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now we need to rename these joints
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firstly so there are no name clashes in
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this rig but also so we know what these
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joints are used for
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let's update the right side first
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so select the right arm and leg
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and go to modify search and replace
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names
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we can use this tool to quickly search
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through the hierarchy and replace part
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of each name so we could search for
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underscore r
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and simply replace that with underscore
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r underscore ik
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essentially tagging these as the ik
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joints
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because we had it set to hierarchy all
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the child joints are updated now too
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let's update the left side now
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so search for underscore l
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and replace with underscore l underscore
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ik
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that's done
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with the spine we will just go through
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and rename manually because we have
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nothing we can use to replace at the end
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of each name
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so those are the ik joints
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select them and duplicate them so we can
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create the fk joints
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these now have ik one on the end so
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let's rename that first
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so replace underscore ik one
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with underscore fk
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and now we can update the child joints
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okay let's group these temporarily so we
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can clean up the outliner
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so there we have our fk group and an ik
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group
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okay let's look at the arms first so
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bring back the arm controls
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and move these skeletons apart for now
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let's change the color of the fk arms so
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they look different
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maybe yellow
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uh actually blue
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okay that will do for now
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so we need the skinned skeleton back now
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what we are going to do first is make
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sure the arms control joints follow the
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arm root joint
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this means the animator can use the
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control to reposition the arm if needed
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and this will eventually also drive the
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clavicle too
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first we need to clean this control so
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all the translate and rotate values are
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set to zero
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we can do this quickly as we did before
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by simply moving these attributes down
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to the transform offset parent matrix
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attributes
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now i'm going to cheat and use a small
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script i created to do this for me and
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these will be available as part of the
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course
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i will actually probably package them up
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in a nice ui for you too so you don't
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need to access them on the shelf
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so i just click this
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and there we go the attributes are moved
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so we don't need to use an offset group
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here which is good
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so now we do need a group
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press control and g to create an empty
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group
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and rename it to arm underscore group
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it's good practice to give each element
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a recognizable name
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like here i've used underscore grp
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this just means later in the rigging
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process if i want to quickly select and
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lock all the groups i can just search
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for underscore grp
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like previously when we were using
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offset groups i could just then search
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for underscore offset and quickly lock
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them all at once
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at the moment the arm group is down here
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so we need to reposition it so it
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matches the arm root control
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add the control to the selection
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and go to modify
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match transformations match all
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transforms
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that's now jumped up here
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again we're going to clean up those
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transforms using the offset parent
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matrix attributes
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what we now need is for the new group to
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follow the root control
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we could simply parent the group to it
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but i prefer to keep my systems separate
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where possible
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so we don't want joints nestled under
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controls
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open the node editor
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and bring in the root control
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and let's remove those shape nodes
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ah we should add an l into the name so
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we know that this is for the left arm
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and bring that into the node editor too
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open these
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usually we would use a constraint to
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make the group follow the control but we
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can do something much simpler and more
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effective
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all you need to do is take the world
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matrix 0 attribute from the arm root
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control
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and connect it to the arm groups offset
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parent matrix attribute
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we can now move the control and the
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group followers
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let's move the arm control joints under
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the new group
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so you see we can now position the whole
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arm
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what we need now is for the skinned arm
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to follow the control arms
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we also want to be able to blend between
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the two so the animator can work in
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either forward or inverse kinematics
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now with this being a game rig we can't
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use the matrix attributes or nodes
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not currently anyway but i hear that
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there may be a solution for this coming
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up in a future release
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let me explain why
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so here we have two joints and each is
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being controlled by a nurbs circle
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the first is connected using a
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constraint
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the second is connected using the offset
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parents matrix attributes just like we
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did with our root control
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let me show you
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so here we have the connection just the
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same as we did with the arm root control
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here we have the constraint
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just remove these
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and open these
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so you can see how much more complicated
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constraints can be
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but just because we have the matrix
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nodes it doesn't make the constraints
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redundant
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we still need them in our lives
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okay these have some simple animation on
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them animation which needs to be baked
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and sent to unreal engine
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so the animator has animated the scene
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all we need to do is select the joints
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and go to edit
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keys bake simulation to bake the
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animation onto the joints all ready for
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export
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now that's baked the animation onto the
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joints
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if we scrub the time slider everything
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seems fine
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we have all the keys here
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let's delete the controls
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and let's try that again
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so now you see that only the joint which
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was connected with a constraint has
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retained the animation
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this is because the constraint passes
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translation values to the main
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attributes
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which are then baked
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with the offset parent matrix connection
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no values actually appear here so
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nothing is there to be baked
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so with our rig you need the control
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joints to drive the skin joints using
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constraints so we can retain the
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animation information
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although you can use other nodes like
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the blend colours nodes if you prefer
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this will simply blend between two sets
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of attributes and there are videos
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available online which showcase this
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option
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okay back to our rig
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select the upper arm control joints
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and then the skinned joint
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we don't want the twist joints at this
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point so select the main joints for now
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now go to constraint parent
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disable maintain offset because we want
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the skinned arm to move to the other
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positions
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and apply that
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now do the same with the lower arm
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and finally the hand
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here we have those constraints
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and you can see the weights in the
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channel box
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so the hand will blend between the ik
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and fk hand joints
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they currently both have a value of 1
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which is why the hand is floating
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between them
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if i reduce the fk weight to 0
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the hand joint now moves over the ik
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joint
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if i do the opposite
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the hand now moves over the fk arm
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so we can use these values to let the
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animator blend between ik and fk
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let's open the node editor
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and select the left arm control
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so this is where the ik fk switch
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attribute comes into play
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let's bring that into the node editor
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and open it you can press three to
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quickly open a node
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there we have the attribute
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we now need the three constraints so
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select those
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and bring them into the node editor
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we don't need to open these
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now connect the ik fk switch attribute
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to each constraints fk weight attribute
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hand fk
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lower arm fk
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and upper arm fk
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the arm has now snapped to the ik arm
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because the ik fk switch attribute is
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set to zero
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if we set it to one
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the arm goes back to floating between
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the two control arms
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this is because the ik weights are still
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set to one
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no matter what we set the fk weights to
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so we need to update those two
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what we need is for the ik weights to be
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the opposite of the fk ones
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so when fk is set to 1 ik is 0 and vice
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versa
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we can achieve this with another node
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press tab and start to type reverse
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create a reverse node
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this will take a value and reverse it so
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we can use it to invert the ik fk switch
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value
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rename this to arm ik fk reverse
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now the node editor and its many nodes
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can be quite intimidating so i would
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recommend checking out my video on the
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node editor over on my channel where i
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offer an explanation on how it works
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essentially we have three input
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attributes here
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and also three output attributes
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we just need one for now
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so connect ik fk switch to input x
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and then output x to each ik weight
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attribute on the constraint nodes
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the arm has now snapped to the ik
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control arm
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we can now use the ik fk switch
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attribute to blend between the two
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what's more we can also use the proxy
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attributes we added to also control the
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blending
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while we have these nodes here let's
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make them work a little harder
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remove the constraints from the editor
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and now bring in the ik and fk text
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what we can do is use the same
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attributes to also show and hide these
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connect the ik fk switch attribute to
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the fk text's visibility attributes
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do this for both the f and the k
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and now the output x attribute from the
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reverse node
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to the ik icon's visibility attributes
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so the i and the k
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now as we switch the text changes so the
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animator gets a visual representation of
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what state that limb is currently in
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it's a small thing but it can help when
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it comes to animation and in particular
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navigating the rig and the scene
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so we now have the control joints set up
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for the left arm
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we compose the fk arm and the skinned
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model will happily blend to it from the
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ik arm
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all we need to do now is move the
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control arms back into position
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so select the root of each
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and then the root control
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and use the match transformations tool
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to move them back into position
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the whole arm now moves with the root
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control
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and we can blend between the two
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now we aren't going to go further with
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this arm rig at this stage
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for now we are just setting up all the
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control joints so the main skeleton will
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move with them
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now we are done with the arm let's move
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it into the rig systems group
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so for the right arm it's exactly the
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same process so i'm not going to go over
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all that again
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instead let's have a quick look at the
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legs
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and again this is pretty much the same
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too
00:19:28
so first clean up the transforms on the
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root control
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just moving the values down to the
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transform offset parent matrix tab
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or use the script if you have it
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that's done
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now create an empty group and call it
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leg left group
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and reposition that so it matches the
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root control
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also clean up the attributes too
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those values are down here now
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now open the node editor
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actually before i clear this
00:20:13
because it has three inputs you can use
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the same reverse node for the right arm
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simply use the input y and output y
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attributes instead
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there's no point adding another node
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when you can share them
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okay
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now that's out of the way let's clear
00:20:29
this
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and bring the leg root control and the
00:20:32
leg group in
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and open these
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just as we did with the arm connect
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world space 0 to offset parent matrix
00:20:49
so the group now moves with the control
00:20:53
we now need to parent constrain the skin
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skeleton to the control joints
00:21:00
remember to disable maintain offset
00:21:04
now the knee
00:21:09
and the calf
00:21:12
and now the foot
00:21:21
we also need to connect the toe joints
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too so go through and constrain those
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a quick way to work through these is to
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press g to repeat the parent constraint
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and then simply pick walk down the
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hierarchy
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and press g again
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so we have lots of constraints now let's
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organize this a little better
00:21:47
and bring in the main leg control
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now connect the ik fk switch attribute
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to each constraint fk weight attribute
00:22:09
okay that's done
00:22:11
now we need another reverse node so
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press tab and create one
00:22:19
oops just bring those back in
00:22:23
okay
00:22:24
call this leg ik fk reverse
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again we can use this for both the left
00:22:29
and right legs
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bring the control back
00:22:40
so ik fk switch goes into input x
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and output x goes into each constraint
00:22:50
node's ik weight attribute
00:23:11
we can now blend between the two control
00:23:13
legs
00:23:17
okay let's update the text now so it
00:23:18
represents which leg is being used
00:23:22
remove the constraint nodes
00:23:26
and bring in the text curves
00:23:33
now connect ikfk switch to the
00:23:36
visibility attributes on the fk text
00:23:39
curves
00:23:42
and the output x attribute from the
00:23:43
reverse node to the ik text's visibility
00:23:46
attributes
00:23:58
okay great that works
00:24:04
all we need to do now is move the leg
00:24:06
control groups into the leg left group
00:24:10
and snap them back into position so they
00:24:12
all lie in the same space
00:24:16
okay done
00:24:18
let's move the main group now into the
00:24:20
rig systems group
00:24:23
okay that's the control joint set up for
00:24:26
the left arm and leg
00:24:27
and we can blend between ik and fk
00:24:31
as mentioned earlier the process is
00:24:33
exactly the same for the opposite leg
00:24:35
and arm
00:24:36
you can also apply the same technique to
00:24:39
the spine too
00:24:41
with this instead of using the root
00:24:42
control you can use the cog control as
00:24:45
the main position control for the spine
00:24:48
okay i'm going to update all those now
00:24:51
and i will back in a few seconds
00:24:54
right that was quick
00:24:57
so here we have all the control limbs
00:24:59
and the spine set up
00:25:01
if i just move the ik joints back
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you see he follows
00:25:18
we can use the ik fk switch attributes
00:25:20
to blend back to fk2 when needed
00:25:30
you can see the spine follows the cog
00:25:32
control
00:25:33
just like the limbs follow their root
00:25:35
controls
00:25:36
i also updated the cog control so it has
00:25:39
the same attributes as the main ik
00:25:41
controls too because we will need these
00:25:43
options for the spine
00:25:46
we can also blend between ik and fk with
00:25:48
the spine
00:25:50
okay so that's the control joint set up
00:25:53
and ready for the main controls
00:25:56
so in the next video let's start
00:25:57
building the main systems
00:26:22
you
