How to rig a Car

On this page, we are going to be learning how to rig a car in Maya. Is a simple but complete rig that the animator would love!

Model: https://artstn.co/m/grBDO

Rig Tools: Mutant Tools

Model Prep

Just put the whole model in a group named: ‘geo’, make it look into the Z+ axis

We need to have the 4 wheels as its own geo and not merged together.

Guide Setup

Car Template

We are going to be using the car template, ill explain block by block so it’s easy to follow. Don’t worry if this seems intimidating, there is a bunch of info that you need before rig.

Blocks

Cluster Trick

For easy placement, we can use the cluster trick! Just select vertices, edges, or whatever is in the pivot we want, create a cluster, and then match transformation only! Easy placement!

BaseA

Will Create a Global, Mover Ctrls and the rig groups for us. Nothing to do here except maybe the scale that can be modified later…

Root

Will create a joint at 0, 0, 0. Useful? Maybe? We don’t really use it but is there in case we do.

Import MT

This code is the code we need to import mt commands, which are the commands we use in the Mutant Tools API, you can copy and paste it to make your custom rig code.

COG

We place the locator in the middle of the car. The car can have a lot of visual chaos so we need to make sure we clean the curves later and the middle of the car is a great option to compensate for the drift and more complex movement.

Chasis

For the chassis and for most of the guides we use the cluster trick to easily place them, Just create a cluster and match the translation to the guide, and that is it. The main Chais goes in the middle of the car and the Front and Back go where the wheels turn, this is important since this works for parents for other blocks, so should be as perfect as possible.

Front and Back Trunk

The front trunk is where the engine lives and in this case ill use the back one for the extra wheel on the back but should be where the back trunk is!

Doors

This car doesnt have doors but the guide is simple, I’ll probably just delete the block but to make the example I just place them where the doors should be.

Windows

Again a bad example but same thing.. just place them at the pivot point

Mirrors

Where the mirror pivots are… Make the axis aim at the child so it’s easy for the animator and keep the end one oriented to the world if possible.

Front and Back Wheel

Same Trick, Cluster > Place Guide

WheelPush

On this one is where it gets a bit more complex. We need to set the wheel go for it to work… Nothing hard just to keep it in mind.

Select Faces > Rig UI > Set Selection

Seats

Seats Fk Controllers… Nothing Fancy again.

Steering Wheel

The important part here is to make sure that the Wheel is oriented correctly since if is not animation department will hate you!

Auto Wheel

The template is already set up for you. Will make the desire Ctrl an auto rotation for the wheels, so when moving on the Z axis the wheels will rotate automatically.

Drift

Drift will create Dynamic Pivots on the Front and Back Chasis controllers, so animators can move the cars from where they need to. Nothing to change here.

Load Blocks

I don’t use them but they are in the template…

Unselectable

Will make the ‘geo’ group unselectable and create some attributes to overwrite it.

Dinamic Scales

Will create 7 scale Controllers in case you need them

Code Block

If you feel like a hacker you can use them to add custom scripts. This rig is going to be empty.

You can code with Mel or python and can be as hardcoded as needed…

Change Colors

Will update some colors to match the desired look of some animator friends.

The format is: ctrl:color
Not all colors are available, Just try the basic ones in case you feel artistic.

Build

Mirror Shapes

FOr updating the shapes just do it manually but only for the Left side, then you can just go to File > Mirror Ctrls and will mirror them for you

Update Shapes

Feel free to change any colors or shapes using the Tools UI.

Skinning

Skinning is super easy since it’s hard parts only.

You can find all the bind joints using the ending ‘*_Bnd’ or going to the Bind_Joints_Grp. If you feel overwhelmed by the amount just go from top to bottom on the outliner, always baby steps are the best way to finish something boring.

Wheel Input Order

For the wheel push to work, we may need to update the input orders to make the skinning compute first and then the lattice.

Complete

Go to helpers UI an hit Complete so its cleaner and ready to use!