Question for riggers/animators
I was wondering if anyone who rigs/animates characters had any advice about learning how to rig. I have been following a long rigging tutorial recently. I was just about to move on to creating blend shapes and finishing up the rig when something went wrong (I think while grouping some elements together) and when I opened the saved file I was working on, it was all messed up. It's not too important as it gives me the opportunity to go over it again.
But my question is, when creating a rig for a character, from start to finish, it is such a huge process. I get really overwhelmed, just how much goes into it, with Ik handles, sometimes with maintain offset on, sometimes off, the IK/FK blending, creating manipulators, knowing what gets parented to what, when to orient constrain this, and when to parent constrain that. Cluster points. e.t.c. It seems like so much I wonder how you ever get the whole lot to sink in. I wonder if anyone has any tips on learning this process, any good things to remember? Any golden rules?
Maybe someone can offer some advice on how they learned? I know theres no easy way, it's a case of getting on with it, knuckling down, and making sure you understand the underlying concepts of what, say, an orient constraint is and does, and what cluster points do, so you can then know how you can use them for your own means.