Linking :
hen it comes to linking, we are essentially making one object control another, or many other objects. However many objects an object can control depends on how it is linked. The controlling object is called the 'Parent', and everything underneath it in the Hierarchy are its 'Children', the parent controls its children. A Parent object can have as many children as you desire, but the further down the line you go, the more parents you end up with, so you've got a Parent object that controls its child, which is a parent of another child:
To link objects together, you will need to select the '
Select and Link ' tool.
With your initial object selected, Click, HOLD and drag the cursor to the next object down the line, then release the mouse button over the object. Rinse, Wipe and Repeat.
See below for an example on how to link:
How you decide to link your character is entirely up to you, I've taken a similar method as the one in the image I posted showing pivot points and link direction. After everything is Linked up, it's a good idea to play about with it and rotate some joints around, just to test the positioning of your pivot points. If you do this, be sure and save a new document, posing your only file and not having enough 'undo's' to take it back to its original position will be very annoying. (
Alternatively, you can select all of your objects and use the ' Hold ' function, then... after you're done posing him up, re-select all of the objects and use the ' Fetch ' function )
Seeing that my pivots are all rotating as they should, I usually don't bother with test-skinning my character at this stage. I know that I'll be doing some envelope tweaks to the skin later on anyway but if you want to test your rig with a skin now, then skip to the
skinning section to learn how to do it.
Sweet progress, onto
Inverse Kinematics Next.
