Rigging a Gear in Autodesk Maya

In this tutorial you will learn how to rig a mechanical gear setup in Maya. You will learn how to use simple expressions and also how to use connection editor.

How to use set driven key in Autodesk Maya

Set driven key is perhaps the most powerful tool for the rigging in Autodesk Maya. It gives you the immense opportunity to control the desired attribute with a condition in place. In this video We are trying to make a connection between two parameter of two different object. Here we like to control the radius of the torus with the translate Z of the poly sphere.

Go to Animation section , under the animate menu you will found the set driven key option. While turning on the set driven key window don't select any object or else that selected object will become the driven. When the set driven key window open select the object you want to make the driver then click on the load driver, same process will go for the load driven option. now you can select the driver parameter , here in this example the driver is the translate Z and the driven will be the radius. Follow the video for the detailed steps to accomplish the relation between two parameter.

Rigging in Maya Chapter 10 - Creating IK Controls

In this 10th chapter you will get the idea of creating the IK or Inverse Kinematic control on the characters hand. While creating the joint chain of the hands, make sure they are aligned in the same at their secondary axis, because if you don't align them it can create a problem while creating the IK chain. The problem will happen for the preferred angle of the IK solver, it can reset the preferred angle by its own which can trigger a position jerk in the joint chain.

So when creating the joints make sure they are align in the secondary axis from the front view port. So while creating make sure you make the joint chain from top view and then make required changes from the front view but in the base parent of the joint chain like here we did it in the shoulder. Follow the video for the details.