Configuring the neck and head controls

00:03

So now the spine is rigged. It makes sense for us to continue working our way up the rig

00:09

and work on the neck, head and eyes.

00:12

We need the neck to follow the shoulders,

00:16

the head to follow the neck

00:18

and the eye controls need to be able to

00:20

switch between following the head or staying in place.

00:25

Let's focus on the neck and head first.

00:28

So let's hide the eye controls. For now

00:32

when we built the spine, we left the neck and head separate.

00:35

So they currently don't follow as it deforms.

00:38

We also kept it free of the IK and FK systems. So it's unique in a way

00:44

what this means is we now need to be able

00:46

to follow the upper spine regardless of it being animated

00:50

in IK or FK.

00:53

So it needs to follow this control

00:56

and it also needs to move with the top FK spine control too

01:03

with the head. We want this to follow the neck control,

01:07

but we also want to give the animator the flexibility to keep the head level.

01:12

So we have lots to do.

01:14

But this isn't as difficult as it sounds.

01:17

Let's find the controls in the outliner.

01:21

OK. So with these controls, what I want to do is take a more traditional route

01:26

and use constraints

01:28

more.

01:28

So,

01:29

so you can see this approach if you need to use it

01:32

or if you end up working with an older version of Maya.

01:36

So with us using constraints, this time, we need to create two offset groups,

01:42

press control NG to create an empty group.

01:45

Now create another

01:48

rename these to head control offset

01:52

and neck control offset.

01:55

Let's move these under the cog control

01:58

and they need to match the same position and orientation of the controls.

02:03

So select the neck control offset group

02:07

and the net control

02:09

and go to modify match transformations, match all transforms.

02:15

Now do the same with the head control offset group,

02:19

moving it to match the head control.

02:22

OK. Next move each control under their offset group.

02:28

You will notice now that the controls, translations have reset to zero.

02:33

This is because they are in the same place as the offset group which are their parents

02:38

and the translation values are relative to the parent.

02:43

Let's look at the neck. Now

02:45

we want it to follow the shoulder control and the upper spine

02:49

or spine three FK control.

02:53

Let's find them.

02:55

OK? Select the shoulder control

02:58

and then the spine FK control.

03:01

And finally the neck offset group

03:05

now create a parent constraint with the default values.

03:10

We can now see here the two weight values

03:13

which will allow us to move between the two controls

03:17

much like we did with the control joints.