Step
1
This
setup will give us a realistic twisting motion in the forearm,
closely simulating the radius and ulna bones. We'll start by using
the arm rig from the last lesson.
But this time the forearm bone will be used as part of the IK
chain only, not for skinning purposes.
Select
the forearm bone and nub (Bone02 and Bone03 if you
followed the last lesson).

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Step
2
I'll be referring to bones and helpers by their default names as
they're created in Max. So follow along the directions one at a
time and our names will match.
Make
two copies of these bones.

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Step
3
Select
Bone06 (the larger bone, not the little bone) and move it
just to the right of Bone02.

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Step
4
Select
Bone08 (the bigger one again) and move it to the left. These
will represent the radius and ulna bones in your arm. The radius
is the bone on the same side of your arm as the thumb, and the ulna
is on the same side as your pinky. But since this could be either
a left or right arm it doesn't matter which is which right now.

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Step
5
Now
add a Point helper.

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Step
6
Now
we'll align it to Bone02. Click on the Align button.

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Step
7
And set up the Align window the way you see below. Basically,
we're placing this Point helper at the base of Bone02
and aligning it's rotation with the bone at the same time.

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Step
8
Link
the radius and ulna bones (Bone06 and Bone08) to the
point helper (Point01) we just created.

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Step
9
We
need to create IK chains for the radius and ulna bones. Select Bone09,
go into the Animation menu, IK Solvers, and select HI Solver. Select
the main bone of this hierarchy (Bone08) as the end of the
chain.

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Step
10
Do
the same thing to with Bone07 and Bone06.

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Step
11
Now
we need to link both of these new IK Goals to the main IK
Goal for the arm, IK Chain01.

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Step
12
A
couple more bits of linking and we're done. Link both the radius
and ulna bones (Bone06 and Bone08) to the elbow point
helper (Point01).

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Step
13
And
link Point01 to the upper arm bone (Bone01).

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Step
14
If
you've done everything correctly up to this point (and I've written
the instructions right), you should be able to grab the main IK
Goal object and use it to both, move the arm and rotate the hand.
You'll also notice that as you rotate it the tops of the radius
and ulna bones rotate right along with it, while the bottoms, near
the elbow, stay put. And that's pretty much how the real radius
and ulna bones work.
I've
hidden the nonessential items so that it's easier to see what's
going on.

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Step
15
And
just so you know, the reason we added the point helper at the elbow
and attached the radius and ulna bones to it is so that those bones
will rotate correctly when you use the Swivel Angle or the
dummy helper object to reorient the arm.

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Step
16
If
you run into problems take a look below and see how all the objects
are linked together. I added a more descriptive name to end of the
item name so it's easier to tell what's what.
Also,
once you get it working properly you can do a little housecleaning
by hiding all the bones not highlighted in red. The highlighted
bones and helpers are the important one that you either use to animate
with, or use for skinning bones.

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