Maya Session 6 H/w Robin Ledger Skeletal Animation

I started by creating a Polygon Cylinder. once this was made I set the tool bar to Animation rather than Polygon, so as to access the needed tools. In the skin tab drop-down list I selected Binding > Smooth Binding whilst using it's default settings. This allowed me to create the cone shape pieces in the image above.

I made 4 of these inside the cylinder, making sure that they were centred (I didn't have to worry about them joining together as that is automatic).

Now in the shading tab I activated the X-ray joints selection so that I could see the joints in the cylinder whilst in shaded mode. I then moved onto adding joints to the fish model.

Following the same procedure with the cylinder I created a spine for the fish provided in the exercise files for the tutorial. I created the tail joints by deselecting the joints, selecting the joint tool and selecting the circle point in the centre of the tail fin. By doing this I could add a joint in any direction I wanted without affecting the rest of the joints, but they are all still connected. And I did the same for the joint going down.

I then proceeded to finish the skeleton of joints for the entire fish. Adding a total of 4 joints for the dorsal fin, 2 for the face and 4 more for the fins (2 on each side).

With the joints in place I set about binding them to the polygon. Selecting the skin drop-down list and selecting Binding > Smooth Binding, this time I selected the little box next to smooth binding to change the settings as shown above.

I then began playing with the joints to see if they moved correctly. They do move correctly however they effect other parts of the fish such as the dorsal fin affecting the tail fin and the normal fins affecting the main body. To sort this out I began by adding a key frame in their relaxed state (as shown above), then moving on a few frames and creating a new key frame in their new positions (as shown above) and finally copying the original key frame and pasting it after the transformation key frame to place them back in their relaxed positions.

Now using the Skin > Paint Skin Weights Tool I can see which joints affect the model. the black indicates what isn't affected by the selected joint and the white/grey shows what is. I set my paint value to 0 and paint over the overstretched grey, this removes and makes so that the joint no longer deforms the main body. From this I continue on to fix the joint problems of the tail fin and dorsal fin.

Now with the bugs fixed I can animate my fish. Above is my fish mid animation.