Locking the controls

00:03

OK, let's start locking things down. Now

00:06

select all the body controls.

00:09

So all these attributes are currently available,

00:12

but we don't want the animator to scale any of them.

00:15

For this particular rig.

00:17

We didn't add in any specific scale options on these controls.

00:21

So it's safe for us to simply lock and hide the scale and visibility attributes.

00:27

I'll do it over here. So you can see.

00:31

So all that's left are the attributes. The animator is allowed to use

00:36

with the root control. We need the scale attributes

00:40

but we only need the translate and rotate attributes on the other controls.

00:46

Let's select the finger and toe controls next.

00:50

Again, we can probably lock the scale and visibility attributes on these

00:55

just leaving the translations and rotations should be fine.

01:00

Let's switch to FK and check those controls.

01:04

One option would be to restrict how the joints rotate in these areas.

01:10

So the arm can't break like this

01:12

and it only rotates around the X axis.

01:16

Let's select the other controls

01:19

and double check.

01:21

Yep, rotate X.

01:24

So let's lock and hide, rotate Y and Z.

01:28

Now the elbow will only bend around this axis.

01:31

So the arm can't be broken or put into an unnatural pose.

01:35

Let's look at the hierarchy. Now,

01:39

as mentioned earlier,

01:40

the animator may just select the route and then

01:42

the hierarchy and set a keyframe on everything.

01:45

So we need to ensure that everything in here is locked.

01:49

So groups like this need to be locked down.

01:52

Let's work our way through and see what else we need to lock.

01:56

So the main groups

01:57

and we also want to lock down the reverse foot groups too

02:01

and also its joints.

02:02

If these have key frames added to them, the foot controls won't work.

02:08

And these

02:10

also the other reverse foot.

02:16

Ok? I think that's everything.

02:18

So just select all the attributes

02:21

and then lock and hide them

02:24

good.

02:25

Now the world space groups, we added

02:28

these can be locked too. Actually,

02:32

let's find them all.

02:35

Unlock those.

02:38

Ah we have these locators,

02:41

the space swapping ones,

02:43

let's show them all

02:46

and switch back to IK.

02:50

OK. So let's work on these next,

02:53

I'll just filter them so we can see them

02:57

ah some still have translation values on them.

02:60

So we need to clean those first.

03:02

Remember that these can be animated if needed. So they all need to be zeroed out.

03:08

We just want to move the values down

03:10

to the transform offset parent matrix section here

03:13

or use the script.

03:16

There we go. Nice and clean.

03:18

I'll just check the others.

03:22

OK? Now let's select them all

03:25

and lock and hide the scale and visibility attributes.

03:30

OK. What else?

03:33

Ah Yes, the end position locators,

03:36

let's filter those.

03:39

This is why naming is so important. So you can easily find things later.

03:44

We only have 41 for each limb.

03:47

So let's select those

03:49

and lock everything.

03:50

The animator doesn't need to touch these.

03:54

Let's go back to the IK handles.

03:57

There are some stray attributes here which we should also lock

04:01

again. Let's filter them

04:04

and then lock those.

04:07

Ok.

04:08

I think that's everything but it doesn't hurt to double check.

04:12

And even though we locked and hid the attributes, everything still works.

04:18

Ah, yes, the main leg and arm controls here need updating.

04:22

They currently have values on them,

04:24

but that's not a problem as we don't need to move them

04:27

instead, what we want is for them to follow the limb as it moves.

04:32

Let's bring back the skeleton

04:35

and all we are going to do is point constrain them to the hand joint.

04:40

We use the hand joint.

04:41

So it will follow regardless of if the animator is working in IK or FK.

04:48

And as you can see the point constraint means

04:50

it moves with the arm but doesn't rotate too.

04:54

Let's update the others

04:57

and constrain those to the foot joints.

05:01

So now those are done, we can lock off the attributes so they can't be animated.