This is a weekly update for my Maya camera rig creation project. If you want to learn more about the rigs I have made you can see the whole project here. All rigs are available to be download and are free to use.
This week I updated all of the rigs that I have created so far. I added some aim controls to the handheld, dolly rig, and tripod rig, and fixed the aim controls on the crane/jib rig. I also created the overhead rig which is used for capturing top-down shots and is good for showing an objective perspective and details within a shot.
The aim constraint in Maya doesn’t work right when it is only constrained to one axis. An aim constraint is a rigging to that lets one objects rotation be controlled by having it follow a different object. So what I did was constrain each rig’s camera on all axises and constrained the geometry on the rigs on single axises. So when the camera is following the aim control it will not break, however, the geometry will not always face the right way. This is a bit frustrating, but it does not affect the functionality of the rig. I spent a lot of time trying to find a solution that could fix this problem, but everything that was recommended did not work, so this was the best solution that I could find.
I also made it so that the aim control can be changed to follow either the main control of the rig or nothing at all. I decided to add this because as I was using the rig in a previous project that I am currently working on I had the crane move during a shot, but didn’t want the aim control to follow it as I was setting it up. So if the entire rig needs to move during a shot, the aim will not have to be adjusted constantly for it to stay focused on a fixed point. I also made it so that the visibility of that aim control could be changed, which makes it easier to work on a shot once the aim control is where it needs to be.
After updating the rigs from the last two weeks I made the overhead rig.
This rig is used for filming top-down shots (shots that are filming directly downwards). It is a pretty simple rig that only has a couple of controls, so it did not take too long to make. The rig's height can be adjusted and even though the camera would typically stay in the position it is in, I added a control so that it can be rotated if needed.
To see what happed during the next week click here!