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Understanding hierarchies

Lesson 5: Inverse kinematics

Creating a skeleton hierarchy

 

Learning Resources > Tutorials > Getting Started with Maya > Animation > Lesson 5: Inverse kinematics > 

Viewing hierarchies using the Hypergraph

In the following steps, you use the Hypergraph to view the hierarchy for the mechanical arm. The Hypergraph is a scene management editor that presents a graphical view of the scene hierarchy. It allows you to more easily create, understand, and manage the hierarchy of objects and nodes in your scene.

To view hierarchies using the Hypergraph

1. From the perspective view’s panel menu, select Panels > Layouts > Two Panes Stacked.

   The workspace displays two panels stacked on top of each other with an identical perspective view of the scene.

2. In the lower panel, select Panels > Hypergraph Panel > Hypergraph Hierarchy.

   The lower panel displays the Hypergraph.

   

3. In the Hypergraph menu, select Graph > Scene Hierarchy.

   If the menu item appears dimmed, it indicates that the Hypergraph is already displaying the scene hierarchy

   The Hypergraph displays with a black background by default. In order to see the relationships between the items, the background has been modified for the images in this lesson.

4. In the Hypergraph menu, select View > Frame All to see all the components of your scene.

The boxes represent the nodes for the various items in the scene. Some items in the scene have already been parented into a hierarchy. This is indicated by the lines connecting some of the nodes. Selecting the nodes in the Hypergraph also selects the item in the scene view.

To select an item using the Hypergraph

1. In the Hypergraph, click each of the separate items in the hierarchy at the parent level to select them. At the same time, observe which objects become highlighted on the model in the perspective view.

   

Hierarchies combine the various objects into discrete components for the mechanical arm, that is, the base, lower arm, middle arm, upper arm, etc. If you select and rotate any of the parent nodes in the hierarchies, none of the other arm components follow because they are not combined into one unified hierarchy.