Finger Controls

If your character does not have all their finger joints start with the left hand.

Making the finger joints



1. Copy the wrist joint and position it at the first knuckle of the pointer finger

2.  Name it pntFinger1_L and parent it to the wrist joint.

3. Duplicate the joint, position it at the second knuckle and name it pntFinger2_L repeat for the third knuckle.

4. Position the joints so they are in the middle of the finger geometry, also notice that there are three edge loops for the
2nd and 3rd knuckle of each finger, make sure each joint is placed at the center loop.

5. Modify>Freeze transformations on the joints

6. Use skeleton>orient joints to orient the joints so X is pointing to the next joint and so Y is pointing to the back of the character
(this is so positive y rotations curl the fingers into the hand)

7. Make sure that the Y axis is aligned with the palm of the hand

TIP!    To modify the orientation of a joint directly. Select the joint and open the attribute editor (ctrl+a).
 Under the joint category locate "Joint Orient" The three values are for X Y Z rotations of the joint.  Click in the number field you want to change and with the mouse cursor over the field hold down the ctrl key and Middle Mouse Button and drag left and right to change the value.

8. Copy this first finger and use it to make all the remaining fingers. Make sure you orient these and freeze transforms
(On the thumb make sure to line up the y axis with the natural angle of the thumb)

9. Change the name prefixes on the joints to  the following thmb pntr mid rng pnk.

10. Before moving on check that all rotations on the joints are zero and all orients are correct.


Creating the Finger Controls


1. Select nothing and press ctrl+g to make an empty group at the origin.

2.  Name this group pntrFinger1_pos_L.

3. Select the pntrFinger_L joint then the pntrFinger1_pos_L group and run the following mel command. 

delete `parentConstraint`     (this will snap the pivot of the group to the selected joint)

4. Create>nurbs object>circle and shape it like a lollipop.We will use this as a controller for the fingers





5. Parent this object to pntrFinger1_pos_L

6. Set all trans and rot values to zero.

7. Rotate it so it sticks out of the top of the finger and then freeze transformations on it.

8. Name this control pntrFinger1_ctrl_L 

9. Select the control and press ctrl+g and name the group pntrFinger1_sdk_L

Now we have an sdk (set driven key) control group that we can use to drive the fingers but still allows
us to use the nurbs controls as well.

10. Now we can duplicate pntrFinger1_pos_L and use it for the next joint of the finger by zeroing the trans and rot values  then run

Repeat this process for the other two knuckles on the pntrFinger making sure to update all names on these new nodes

11.  parent pntrFinger2_pos_L to pntrFinger1_ctrl_L
And parent pntrFinger3_pos_L to pntrFinger2_ctrl_L

12. Lastly parentConstrain the pntrFinger joints to their respective controls.



Final hierarchy for midFinger controls

13. Copy the pntrFinger hierarchy and rename to the next finger control you need ie (rngFinger) using
Modify>Search and Replace Names

14. To place these copied nodes select all the *pos_L nodes and type 0  into the translate and rotate channels. Then use the
delete `parentConstraint` command on each *pos_L node to align it with it's corresponding joint (see step 3 for details).

15. Once all the individual finger control hierarchies are made we group them with the hand_ctrl_L and call the group hand_system_L

Now we Add Set Driven Keys to control the fingers



1.  The drivers for these SDKs are attributes that we add to hand_ctrl_L. The above image shows the  hand attributes  we need to add.

 All of these attributes should have the following options Min: -10 Max:  10 Default: 0

The driven attributes will be the *sdk groups NOT the controllers. The easiest way to select these is to select all the nurbs controllers for the fingers then hit the up arrow to select the SDK group.   

Curl: + curls the fingers toward the palm of the hand - curls fingers upward
Spread: + spreads the fingers apart - pushes the fingers together
Sway: + Curls the fingers forward - Curls the fingers backwards
Roll: + twists the fingers forward (X axis) - twists the fingers backward (X axis)
Scrunch: + Pushes the finger tips towards the palm - Extends the finger tips upwards

See the hand attrs in this video


Mirroring the Hand Ctrls

1. All of the  finger_pos_L groups should be parented to the hand_ctrl_L.

2. Select hand_ctrl_L and group it and name the group hand_system_L.

3. Duplicate this and rename it hand_system_R

4. set scale x to -1 on hand_system_R

5. Freeze Transformations (scale only) on hand_system_R.

6. Search and replace names so the controls all have _R in the name,

Now you have all the controls in place on the right hand

6. Mirror over the left arm from the clavicle using skeleton>mirror joint    
   Options: Mirror behavior
  replace; _L with _R

7. unparent the wrist on this new right hand and parent it to the original arm and delete the unused arm joints we just mirrored over.

8. unparent pntrFinger1_ctrl_R from the hand_system_L while we orient it's parent groups.

9. select pntrFinger1_R  then pntrFinger1_ctrl_R   then run    delete `parentConstraint`;

10.  parent pntrFinger1_ctrl_R back under pntrFinger1_sdk_R and unparent the child of pntrFinger1_ctrl_R

11. Freeze Transformations (Trans Rot Scale) on pntrFinger1_ctrl_R.

Rinse and repeat for all remaining finger controls on the right hand