Digital Tutors - Quick Start to Rigging in 3ds Max: Volume 1

Duration 2h 49m

Difficulty Level Beginner

Project Files Included

Software used

Autodesk 3ds Max 2014

What you will learn

Welcome to the Quick Start to Rigging in 3ds Max. Quick Starts are a series of specially-constructed courses meant to be followed in sequence and include valuable exercises to reinforce learned concepts.

The lesson format for these Quick Starts will be similar to other Digital-Tutors introductory training. We'll go through 3ds Max's rigging tools in a very methodical way, making sure to cover the tools and techniques that are most important in enabling you to get up and running quickly. Each volume of a Quick Start will build upon the previous volume, enabling us to progressively build up a complex project into a finished state.

In this initial volume, we'll cover the basics of getting started with the rigging tools in 3ds Max. We'll learn how to create bones and work with Inverse Kinematics. We'll cover skinning tools and ways to improve our deformations with time-saving techniques. We'll also learn about constraints, how to set up control objects, and how to build systems with the Reaction Manager.

While building a project together, you'll be provided with valuable knowledge, and the real power comes from being able to take the techniques you've learned and apply them in a different way to your own work. With this in mind, you'll be presented with an assignment immediately following each volume. These assignments will challenge you to take the skills that you've learned in a particular volume and apply them to a different asset.

These courses are designed to be taken in sequence so we really encourage you to start with this volume and proceed all the way through to Volume 5, all so you can take advantage of the periodic assignments along the way to get the full learning experience.

1. Introduction and project overview 01:46

2. Building the leg bones of the character 15:48

3. Adding toe bones 14:36

4. Creating bones for the torso, head, and pelvis 10:46

5. Creating eye bones 05:01

6. Starting on the arm bones 04:09

7. Adding finger bones and mirroring the arm 08:56

8. Skinning models and painting weights 13:31

9. The global control 07:06

10. Controlling the torso 11:37

11. Connecting the upper body bone objects to our controls 05:56

12. Adding controls for the neck and head 05:31

13. Creating eye controls 12:22

14. Controlling the clavicles 04:36

15. Setting up arm controls 08:33

16. Leg controls 04:54

17. Creating a foot roll system 08:08

18. Finishing the foot roll rig 11:17

19. Using custom parameters to drive the fingers and toes 07:56

20. Cleaning up the rig 05:01

21. Volume 1 assignment 02:20