LumberJack Rig – a game rig using Maya’s HumanIk system

As 3d Artist mainly focused on animation processes , when I start to work with Unity 3d and realtime engine , the first thing that I ask my self was : how I can import my 3d animated assets and rigs?!

First of all we must to analize a generic games animation workflow.

After read some documentations here and there , I didn’t found any specific guide about that , but at the end I found my path on animations workflow : using Autodesk HumanIK and keyframe animation and then export a FBX of the rig and separate FBX for the animation loops.  In Maya HumanIk is an integrated tool available on windows menu:

You can easily : Create Skeleton , Define Skeleton , Create Control  Rig . This tool creating a full human Ik chain with controls and curves and a simple interface to manage it.

In the following images I show some steps for producing a fuctunally rig.

1. Creating custom Character 3d model . I did it in Maya and Mudbox , mainly I use Mudbox because you can sculpt a lot of details and retarget to the lowpoly version with the normal maps of the sculpted version. In two words: Less Polygon! You can have less that 70% of the polygons, for game characters creation it works great.
2.  Creating Skeleton with proper naming and correct orientations and then adding a Skin cluster and paint skinning your character . …or Create a Skeleton tapping the Skeleton button or using HumanIK menu > Create > Skeleton  . you have several options on the skeleton’s tab to fit your needs.
3. Defining your skeleton . This step is skipped if you create the Skeleton using HumanIK. HumanIK permits to define a custom skeleton by selection. Just select your bone and using HumanIK UI by right click “assign selected bone”. If you have done right the naming of bones HumanIK mirror automatically the assigned bones.
4. Create  Controls for your rig. You can easily create by using the HumanIk menu > Create > Controls Rig You must to have something like that . So now if you have done correctly all the step you are ready to animate your rig!
   

Here some pose test of my LumberJack Rig.

Hope that you like , for any questions leave a comment!

Thanks