The 2001 Rig tries to be simple in it's execution. We want to make
animating as easy as possible, as well as setting up the character.
Lets take a look at Thom's legs for now.
Open up the 2001Thom.mdl
Go to the Project Workspace and expand the Bone Tree.
As you can see, there are some heirarchies that are equal to each other.
Think of these as the geometry bones(thigh, calve, foot)
and the control bones(leg, knee, OrientThigh).
In it's most simple form, the main magic of the system lies in these three bones, and one null.
The leg bones (LegLeft, LegRight)
The knee bones (KneeLeft, KneeRight)
the ThighOrient Bones (ThighOrientLeft, ThighOrientRight)
The Kfoot nulls (KfootLeft,KfootRight)
They are created in this order: Leg, Knee, ThighOrient.
When the IK_Legs pose is applied, the geometry bones attach themselves to the control bones,
allowing you to control the whole leg with just 2 bones. The Foot Target(Kfoot), and the knee.
To demonstrate this, make a new action for Thom.
Make sure that all bones under the ButtBone are unhidden.(select the ButtBone and press shift+J twice).
To avoid confusion, hide all bones with the word 'fan' in them by pressing the 'J' key. Thesebones are there
to make the mesh behave.to simplify even more, hide everything in the Right leg so just the bonesin the left
leg are showing.Select the bones and tap the 'J' key to hide them.
Feel free to twist the bones in an out to find out what the constraints do during each step.
First thing to do is start from the ground up. Select the FootLeft Bone and add an Orient-Like constraint.
Click the Compensate mode and select the KfootLeft Null.
now select the CalveLeft bone and add a kinematic constraint to the KfootLeft Null.
Select the thighLeft bone and add an Orient Like constraint to the Thigh OrientLeft bone.
And finally, select the LegLeft bone and add an Aim At constraint to the KFootLeft Null.
the leg should now behave properly when KFootLeft Null is moved around.
This is the same setup for the arm, it's just set up horizontally.
When setting up your characters, it should be noted that roll handles play an important
part in how the limb behaves. Make sure the roll handles on the ThighOrientbones and
the Thigh bones are the same. You'll know they are different whenthe thighbone twists itself
up when you apply the constraint.
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