Painting weights is a pain in the ass!

Once again I have come undone at painting weights. For some reason Maya is being very temperamental and not holding the weights I paint. Everytime I paint an area for a certain joint and press hold, then click on something else and click back on the joint I just painted all the work I do seems to vanish and I get a random mess instead. I have spent ages trying to get this to work but no success yet. I would really like to know if its just my copy of maya being weird...

Stretchy limbs tutorial

To create the stretchy limbs I ended up using a tutorial from youtube which for the most part is quite easy to follow. It basically involves using three utility nodes : distance, condition and multiply/divide; which are then hooked into the joints and each other.

I was also given a tutorial by Dan on how to create stretchy limbs which involved using the expression editor. I started off with that method but ran into some problems, which I discussed with Clym. He then recommended me the tutorial on youtube which I had much less hassle with. I personally prefer using the utility nodes over the expression editor as I find it easier now.

More hurdles and progress.

I think my brain is slowly taking it all in and I am starting to feel I can problem solve issues. That being said I have asked Clym for his expert help a few times as I needed guidance. The rig at the moment has stretchy limbs/arms and torso, locators and a reverse footlock. I have managed to get the reverse footlock working well with the stretch and it is causing no problems at the moment. Earlier I added bend to the wrists and I have been working on skinning the skeleton to the mesh.

I have also just begun learning maya muscle as this is the area of rigging I would like to know the most, mainly down to the fact that alot of the models I make are quite realistic and I would love to be able to get realistic jiggle/flex in the muscles. I will continue learning that and see how it goes.

Making Progress!

I went ahead and learnt how to create stretchy limbs/arms, and I applied the principles to my rig. I am glad to say I had no problems and everything is working fine so far. So at the moment I have full IK handles for the arms/legs with the stretch ability.

Problem with blendshapes on squirrel rig solved.

I spoke to Clym about a problem I was having with squirrel rig I made. The issue was mainly about the rig not functioning properly once I used some of the facial controls. Clym helped me with this and explained it was to do with the inputs, and the skin cluster being at the top of the list. I have taken note of this and will bear this in mind for future rigs. Thnks for the help Clym.

Skeleton

Heres the skeleton I have made. I am being very strict with naming each joint too so that I have no problems mirroring. Next up will be the IK handles and then the stretchy features.

Next model I will rig.

I found this rig/model called Joe which is really simple and stylised. The character reminds me of the kid in my grp film, so I decided I would go ahead and rig it. As before I have deleted everything apart from the mesh so I create the rig from scratch. I will be aiming to give the rig stretchy limbs/arms, reverse footlock and possibly FK/IK switching.