Character Rigging - Game Character Development with Maya - page 751

FIGURE 12.36 Connecting the LeftFoot's Ball_Rotate attribute to L_ConBall's Z rotation
5. Select the L_ConBall joint and click Reload Right. All the related keyable attrib-
utes load into the Inputs column ( Figure 12.36b ).
6. Select the attribute Ball_Rotate in the Outputs column. The attributes to which it
can connect in the Inputs column turn bold ( Figure 12.36c ).
7. In the Inputs column, open the Rotate menu by clicking on the + icon next to it,
and select Rotate Z ( Figure 12.36d ). By simply selecting the two attributes, you
have connected them, and their names turn italic to confirm the connection.
Now, as you can see in Figure 12.37 , the LeftFoot's Ball_Rotate attribute will
drive the L_ConBall's Rotate Z attribute.
FIGURE 12.37 The LeftFoot's Ball_Rotate now rotates the L_ConBall joint.
Let's wire up the next attribute, Toe_Rotate. We want the toe joint to be able to rotate up
and down, but right now it is tied to the position of the L_ToeIK IK handle. With that in
mind, we could make the IK handle move, which in turn will move the toe joint.
Firstweneedthetoejoint'spivottobeinthesamepositionastheL_ConBalljointsothatit
gives usthe rotation we need: the ability to tap the toe. Asit is, though, the IKhandle stays
lockedtoitspivot,causingthetoejointtopointouttotheside( Figure 12.38 , right).Toget
around this, we will place the IK handle into a group; we can then adjust the group's pivot
and connect its rotation to the Toe_Rotate attribute. This will then rotate the IK handle.