Help rigging for my animation final

[viathan]

Here is my character:
http://students.uat.edu/micgrass/images/character01.jpg
http://students.uat.edu/micgrass/images/character02.jpg
http://students.uat.edu/micgrass/images/character03.jpg

Very simple, I know, but it took me a while since I don't have a very broad knowledge of modeling. Here is what I am trying to do, I am trying to use Character Studio to rig the model so I can do an animation. As of right now I have the model converted to editable mesh. Do I need to convert this to something else? Also, all the pieces are seperate, the legs, the ball joints are still a ball with a cylinder, ect. If you notice in the picture I have ball joints so the arms, legs, feet, head, and chest have to bend right at those joints without deforming the ball and cylinder. My teacher had told me to convert the entire thing to an editable mesh, then attach everything to the chest, then do the character studio skeleton, but when I bent the skeleton the arms would bend the cylinder that the ball is attached to. I would guess I would have to edit the envelope so the upper arm would include the upper arm and the ball and cylinder right? I only have about 50 minutes worth of character studio so I am lost here. I had also tried to do bones with IK but the bones would not bend right. Also what I had was a parent/child relationship for everything so when I grabbed the upper arm and rotated it up everything attached would move with it and rotate at the ball joint. This worked well but I could not animate it because there was no IK/FK. I am lost here, do I need to convert the model? Do I need to link anything before applying the character studio skeleton? My final model is the armor one and I have to do the animation for next week. If I can get it rigged properly the animation won't take long at all. Let me know if you can give me some pointers to setting it up.
I am following this tutorial:
http://cal3d.sourceforge.net/modeling/tutorial.html

but again, I don't know how to set up my model to start the process of adding the character studio model to it. If there is anyone that could help please let me know.

[Andrew Blair]

Well, if you have the MAX tutorials, thats a wonderful place to start. If you go into the index section of the max help/tutorials, there should be a specific section concerning biped rigging. Very helpful stuff, though I get pretty frustrated with the details concerning rigging & subsequent Physique.

[viathan]

I have done all the tutorials and they haven't helped. I need someone who specifically knows rigging to kind of walk me threw going from a model I just made to setting it up for the biped. It seems like it would not be too hard, I am just stumped on the part before you put the biped on the model.

[Roushey]

K, I think I know what you're looking to do.
I didnt feel like makin this without images so here's a little mini-tutorial for you.

Sorry about the crappy formatting, I was too lazy to set it up all nice.
Http://www.maxer.4t.com/CSminitut.html
If anything is unclear, just email me at "tadakichisan@gmail.com" or catch me on AIM Roush0027

[viathan]

Dh'Oh!! I did everything about an hour ago and I have been pulling my hair out becuase I have the envelopes overlapping and its deforming my mesh. I have to see if I can reasign everything or if I have to go start from the begining. Can I pull up that Physique Initialization some how to change the settings that you did?

[Capt.ArD]

there is a simpler way to do it.

Set up the bones just like in the tut, with the joint of the bone aligning EXACTLY with the joint on your model. The individual part of your model (ie the forearm, the upper arm, calf, thigh) must be separate objects, editable mesh or not.

Look at the top left of the screen. On the tool bar thingy, there are three buttons: bind, unbind, and bind to space warp. select "bind."

click on one of your limbs (the calf, say) and drag the cursor to the corresponding bone. While doing this, there should be a dotted line extending from the calf to the bone, which will disappear when you let go of the mouse. The bone you just bound should flash once. test that it worked by selecting the bone and moving it. If it worked, the calf should move along with the bone.

When you got all the limbs bound to their corresponding bones, just rig the IK solvers like you normally do. You can learn this from the max tuts, if need be. If you did everything right, the limbs will follow the movement of the bones, and will not deform like they do with the skin modifier.

Just remember: the joints on the bones MUST be Very well aligned with where you have the joints in the model. And the model Must be broken up into the individual pieces before you bind to the bones.

this will only help you if you want to make non-flexing/deforming characters. If you want to flex or deform, use skin or physique.

[Roushey]

That way works, but it has some issues.

When you link an object to a biped, the biped will assume it is a part of the bone structure for anything else you assign to it with a physique. So, you will get some unwanted results if you want to use both methods on the same model. The physique technique may take a little longer, but it can save you some headache down the road.

Furthermore, you can also use this technique to augment your biped. You can add bones, or objects to the biped for say, facial animation.
Long story short, I don't advise using link unless its to add more bones.

[animator1]

Originally Posted by Roushey

K, I think I know what you're looking to do.
I didnt feel like makin this without images so here's a little mini-tutorial for you.

Sorry about the crappy formatting, I was too lazy to set it up all nice.
Http://www.maxer.4t.com/CSminitut.html
If anything is unclear, just email me at "tadakichisan@gmail.com" or catch me on AIM Roush0027

This is a great tutorial. It was easy to use and follow. I had found it at the last minute and am very grateful. Again thanks.