Joints & Control Problem

[dave-g--2]

Hi guys,

Just started with learning to rig a character etc. and I've modelled my character and got a rig put in there which all looks fine...
My question is that in all the various research I've done on this so far, when I've finished positioning the joints inside of the mesh and I come to put controls on various joints as I'm doing now, it's good practice to freeze transformations on the joints to zero them out so that they can be returned to 'Rest' position easily among other reasons.

So I'm looking at my joints and I cannot seem to Freeze Transformations or anything to zero them out. Anyone know why? Perhaps I'm just not doing it correctly but it seems to me from what I've read and looking at a couple of video tutorials, that that is the correct way to go. Here's a screenie of what I'm talking about...

Can anyone give me a way to freeze/zero my joints out?

(larger version of the image)
http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/3172/jointsnotfreezging.jpg

[dave-g--2]

Just found this in the Maya help area:

"Note: Freeze
Transformations does not affect the translation transforms
of joints because their translation
transforms are required to define the lengths of their bones."

I instead tried "Reset Transformations" with no luck. Surely there's a way to zero them out still? I'm using Maya 2010 by the way.

[adam-white]

joints can't be froze because there position is in world space. The translation trash that you see is the position of the joint in world space. Rotation and scale can be zeroed out because they're calculated in local space.

There's no way or reason to freeze them. However, depending on why you needed clean numbers. there are a couple of work arounds.

1. Place a group node above the joint in the hierarchy. That will give you clean translation. However, make sure the pivot of the group is the same as the joint's.

2. If you were trying to constrain controls to them, maintain offset will correct any trash. Most the time though this isn't needed. Maya will keep track of translation values of the joints without the need for the offset.

3. If you need to have a rest position. Right click on the joint and Set Preferred Angle. to get it back simple right-click and Assume Preferred Angle.

However, if you have controls, make sure your controls are froze before constrains and you can selected the controls zero them out and the rig should return to bind pose.

Hope that helped,

Adam

[dave-g--2]

Thanks Adam that's a great help.

Cheers,

Dave