CREATE A PRE-RIGGED ROBOT

AUTHOR

Donovan B. Douglas, MFA

Donovan teaches modelling and animation classes at Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia. He has worked in 3D since 2002. 3ds Max, ZBrush, Mudbox and Maya are his favourite 3D programs. Author www.donoman.com

PART ¼

Welcome to Part 1 in a four-part series on creating a unique, fully rigged robot using only a CAT Rig in 3ds Max. CAT, which stands for Character Animation Toolkit, is a unique animation system available in 3ds Max. CAT Rigs are offered in a variety of pre-built character rigs directly within the program. Preset CAT Rigs are available for animals, insects and fantasy creatures, so the possibilities are endless for creating mechanical versions of each of these.

In this first part we will add all of the control objects needed for animating a CAT Rig robot with ease. The second tutorial in the series will show how simple it is to build directly onto a CAT Rig object, allowing you to bypass traditional skinning methods to create your robot. The technique provides a way to substitute the makeup of the bone objects with existing geometry models, or for even greater freedom to build upon the bone itself using traditional modelling techniques. Since we are working with a bone system it is even possible to add skinning to additional geometry where needed. Adding UVs and learning how easy it is to texture your model are presented in Part 3. Adding animation is the final step in the process and