Rigging a Cartoon Character in Maya Tutorial Day 1

Setting up the Leg Joints

Here I am using the simple "Create Joints" Tool  to create a joint for this character. [Create Joints Tool circled]

Here I used the "Create IK Handle" Tool to create on the characters leg. Om the outliner I am also making sure I rename the names for each join. 

Here I 1st added Circle Nurbs Curve on the bottom of the foot and made sure I made it a bit bigger just to be outside the geometry. 2nd I then used the Snap tool located at the top to Snap the Circle and the IK Handle together. I also moved the IK Handle together with the Leg Control at the end.

Measuring the Joints

Here I used the Measuring tool to measure the length of each joint is etc.

Using the Measurements later to figure out the stretch. I am also putting both the locator and the IK handles together. *The picture above this one shows a fixed measurement problem I had. They were not snapped exactly to were they were supposed to.*

Creating Stretch Using Expressions

Here I am using the Connection Editor to finding the proper name that I'm looking for.

Building up the Expression to be able to stretch. If it works it should change color [^^Shown in next picture] 

my side note 8:20

$REF_Length = LegRef_DistShape1.distance + LegRef_DistShape2.distance;
$IK_Length = LefLeg_IK_DistShape.distance; 

if ( $IK_Length > $REF_Length ) {
    Left_Leg_IK01.scaleX = $IK_Length/$REF_Length ;
}
else {
    Left_Leg_IK01.scaleX = 1;
}