Mocap data
Maya has it’s own auto rigging system. If you have a character with a joint structure it can be used to generate controls.
Select create custom rig mapping and start to pair up the joint to the corresponding part of the body in the definition menu. the arms should be straighten up and aligned to the axes.
these would be the final controls.
After in the content browser it is possible to get some mocap data to apply some animation to the rigged character.
manual rigging
these are the steps to create a leg rig
3 IK handles for the leg rig: leg, stabiliser and toe.
rotate with sticky option for hips-ankle handle
single chain ankle- foot and foot toe handles
groups the IK handles to recreate the different foot rotations
control to connect the whole grouping system
create a nurbs circle with the pivot in the middle of the ankle joint and with frozen transformation
knee pole control: create a nurbs circle and group it (offset group) and after parent the group to the knee joint after zero the channel of the group to get the exact rotation of the knee and after use the pole vector constrain tool
add different attributes to the foot control channel
mirror the foot control to the other side by duplicating the control group it put the scale x to -1 un parent it
connection editor for the attributes, left display, turn off show non keyable to link the channels to the correct rotation axis
for the foot roll use set driven key to a value of 30 and -30
group hierarchy
inherit transforms: you might notice that by moving the main group the individual parts start to move at different rate to correct this you need to tick off the inherit transform attribute for the main geo and psd groups.
to manually create a spine control instead these are the steps:
create a pelvis control and position it according to the pelvis joint. To align the spine controls create a locator to use as a guide. in order to simulate a spine rotation parent them together according to their hierarchy.