Introduction to Character Rigging in 3ds Max

In this lesson we'll establish custom parameters that will be used to control our reverse lock helpers. And we have a number of ways we can use to control these helpers. In a more complex course we go in and actually build controls for them. But in this case we're going to go ahead and take the approach of using custom parameters and still give the animator the control he or she needs. Now before we build these custom parameters we want to ask ourselves what would be the best place to store them? Should we create another control, tie that into our control rig and just store them there? Or can we just utilize what we've already built? Now I'm a big fan for keeping control rigs as clean as they possibly can be. Meaning using as few amount of controls as possible. By doing so we can avoid clutter and, at the same time, avoid any confusion in our control rig. Now there are times where you do need to add extra controls. Don't get me wrong. But if you can avoid adding them that would be much better, again, to avoid that confusion in your control rig. So, with that said, let's say we go ahead and add these custom parameters to our foot controls. We'll start with the left foot. Let's head over to our modify panel. Now, rather than adding these custom parameters directly to our line object, OK, we're going to go ahead and use an attribute holder. And the reason why is we're going to be able to bypass all of these properties that are tied down to this line object. To do this we simply go to our modify list, press the A key so we can quickly find it and there it is, the actually holder. Alright, once that's there we're now ready to add our custom parameters. And what's nice is that if we go ahead and select this we're not going to see any of those line properties anymore. We're just going to see the parameters tied down to this attribute holder. All right so with our left foot control selected again, we'll head over to the animation menu. And here's our parameter editor that's used to add custom parameters. Another way to access it is using the hot key alt 1. Since that's a little bit faster that's the workflow I like to use. OK, now what I like to do first is actually start by creating a label. So we know exactly what the parameters are going to influence. So we have our heel helper, the toe helper, and the ball helper. That's what we need to worry about. So let's say we go ahead and change our parameter type here from float to string. So we can add a description. For the name, I'll simply call this Heel Controls. And then for the default text simply type in XYZ. So we know exactly what these heel controls will control. From there we can go ahead and choose add and here we have it. And if you ever wanted to, you could always go into this text box and change the name. So you could always add Rotation XYZ. OK, now that that's done we can go ahead and switch our parameter type to float. And then from there start to create the custom parameters that we'll animate with. So for the name, this is going to be Heel X. This is going to control the x-axis of our heel helper. We can change the width of our parameter, making it not so large. Let's go ahead and use the value of 100. And then for our range, we'll give it a minimum of negative 360, a max of positive 360. By using a greater range, we can give the animator more control. So I highly recommend. OK, so once that's done we can go ahead and choose add. There's our first custom parameter that we'll animate with. Let's go and add the others. It's going to be Heel Y. That's only thing we need to change the name there. Go ahead and choose add. Everything else is fine. And the last will be Heel Z, the last for this section. Choose that and there we have it. Let's go ahead and create another description, another category. And this is going to be for our toe controls. So we'll type in Toe Controls and then from there, for our description, again Rotation XYZ. Choose add, there it is. Switch our parameter tied to float. And, again, that's going to be Toe X. Change the width to 100. The range is going to be negative 360 and the max, positive 360. Choose add. Go ahead and create another. And I'm actually going to misspell this just to show you how to edit this. So I just add arbitrary text to this. And this is Toe Y. So I add the Y, choose add. And let's say if you wanted to go ahead and edit this name. Let's say you misspelled something. You could always go ahead and choose edit right next to add. Find the attribute that you'd like to correct. Go ahead and select that. And then from there, if you need to change the value, you can. Or the name. Can go ahead and correct the spelling. And what's very important is you must choose apply changes afterwards. If you don't those settings will not be corrected. All right. So I'll go ahead and come out of that dialogue now. And we can go ahead and add the last parameter for this section. So that's going to be Toe Z. Choose add. Alright, so for the last one it's going to be for of the ball of the foot. So again, go to our parameter type, choose string, ball controls. For the default text type in Rotation XYZ. Go ahead and add that. And we'll switch this back to float. First one is going to be Ball X. Change our width back to 100. It resets when we switch between our parameter types. It's going to be negative 360, positive 360. Choose add. Alright, we have two more here to work with, or to create. And one more. OK. So now you know the steps for creating custom parameters. I'm not going to go ahead and work on the right side. But you most certainly can and definitely should. But by the next lesson I'll have the right side already finished. And we can go ahead and set up these custom parameters to control our helpers.