Skeleton Setup - Game Character Development with Maya - page 679

First we need to address the wings' ability to open and close. With the current joint hier-
archy we can't do this ( Figure 11.21 , left). The single joint at the wrist rotates all the fin-
gers of the wing; we need to be able to rotate these individually.
FIGURE 11.21 Adjust the wing hierarchy so that the wing can open and close.
1. Select the middle joint of each wing finger, and go to Edit > Unparent ( Figure
11.21 , middle).
2. Now select the knuckle joint to which they were originally parented, and duplicate
it four times. Call these duplicates L_Wing_Finger01_Base ,
L_Wing_Finger02_Base , L_Wing_Finger02_Base , and
L_Wing_Finger04_Base .
3. Parent these new joints to the one from which they were duplicated,
L_Wing_Wrist.
4. Now parent the ends of the wing fingers to the new joints. So L_Wing_Finger01
will be parented to L_Wing_Finger01_Base, and so forth. In effect, the wing will
look no different than when we began.
As you can see in Figure 11.21 , right, we can now open and close the wing by using the
new joints we've created.
Now that the wing is easier to pose, we can go about attaching it to the main skeleton and
mirroring it for the wing on the right.
1. To start, simply parent the wing to the upper spine joint—the same one to which
the clavicles were parented ( Figure 11.22 , middle).