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I start the hand the same way as the shoulder. By duplicating the arm end and
unparenting it. I hide the arm bones for now, to make it easier for myself. Then
I draw (using usually the top view) straight out the middle finger. I also roughly
place the other three fingers. Leave the thumb alone for now, that will come at the end.
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The outliner should be your best friend by now, hopefully it will look something
like this for the fingers. You'll see the chains of finger bones are seperate
right now, except the middle finger.
Also the ring, pinky, and index (JALf_1) joints are seperate.
These are made by duplicating the handJALf_1 joint and unparenting them. Rename and
delete the downline chains on all of them.
Then just let them stay where they are for now.
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You want to setup some more joint rotations on the fingers and the wrist.
The wrist is simple, on my model, it bends down in the negative Z-axis.
The fingers also bend down in the negative Z-axis, but you will notice that
when you try to bend them all at once by using the "select -hi;" mel command,
many of them will often rotate opposite.
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This is fixed easily by flipping the
joint orient axis (usually it's the X-orient) 180 degrees back. So if it reads 90
make it -90, or if it's -180 make it 0. Whatever works to get the entire heirarchy
rotating in the correct direction.
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I will try and give you a little more detail on the finger joints. The "Hand"
joint consists of only one bone, its' name takes the place of the middleJA_1
and it is the main wrist control.
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I begin the middle finger with a JB as well as all the other fingers, because
that is where the fingers will start bending. All the JA joints will lie at
the origin point of the wrist.
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It gets a little tricky explaining this to you
without being able to show exactly every step. But what I do, is first to
parent the indexJBLf_1 to the indexJALf_1.
Then "zero" out the Y and Z translates of the indexJBLF_1 joint
in the channel box.
This will move the joint position , but don't worry.
Open up the Attribute Editor and move the JB joint back into position
using the joint orients of the JA parent bone.
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I repeat this process for all of the fingers. Checking the joint
rotaitons from time to time is also a good idea. Making sure
that you haven't accidentally spun the wrong bone around.
The reaon why I don't zero the X translate value is because
it should already be the correct distance away from the wrist for
me.
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Eventually everything will be parented under the one handJALf_1 joint.
Technically speaking, the middle finger is on one less joint. That is
for animation purposes. Wherever your middle knuckle points, is where
your wrist has turned. However, there is some movement by the other
bones in your hand without the use your wrist.
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For example: Take your hand (the fleshy thing at the end of your arm)
and make your thumb and pinkie touch. There is some curvature at the
top of your hand now, but the middle metacarpal is always at the
top of the curve.
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You will repeat the same process for the thumb, but with a little
modification to the way it rotates inward.
You still want it to rotate inward like the fingers, on the negative
Z-axis. But you want to move the X joint orient somewhat. This will make
the thumb curl inward instead of downward
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The thumb will come across the palm more like this after the offset.
I believe I turned the joint orient on the JBLf_1 about 60 degrees
in the X value box.
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So this should be the entire hand built. This image is actually from the
right hand that I mirrored over.
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Just a quick animation to show you a fist. Now that all the fingers and the thumb
curl inward using a -Z value on the rotate, give it a try.
Just select all the JB joints and then use your "select -hi;" MEL
knowledge. Then grab the channel box value and move it up
and down to watch the fingers extend and curl.
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Of course, the orients for each joint group need to be done now.
At least you should have a working hand that curls and extends.
Now to add the JCon on the hand (if you haven't already) and the JOri
to the end of the arm. And the groups for each hand, and their
respective orients, and set drivens and all that.
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Once your hand is done and successfully mirrored, along with
the arm and all it's needs, you should have a skeleton
that looks something like this. This guy is almost ready for
aniamtion.
In the following chapeters I'll get into workflow a little bit
to keep everything clean in the outliner.
Then I'll move to skinning the character to the bones.
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