Robot Rig Finished

Today I finished a rig that I have been working on for the past week and a half. Since the model is of a robot, I wanted to make the rig fairly simple but to the point so that it has the functionalities that it needs. I created an IKFK switch for the arms, and a visibility swap for the IK and FK controls as well so it makes it easier for the animator to deal with. The clavicles were created with IK handles (single chain) so that the animator can create more achievable movements with the character. The legs are IK and I created the switch-foot system for the feet so there would also be more achievable and realistic movements for the feet, as well. At last, I created a variety of attributes for the hands using the SDK method. Each finger is able to curl and spread on its own, I created a thumb drop for a more realistic thumb, and there are also attributes for the entire hand such as a "fist" and "spread" so that all of the fingers move at the same time.

As every rigging artist deals with, I encountered several problems with the rig as I was creating it. I was making some minor, amateur mistakes such as using the wrong kind of constraints, having things parented in the wrong places, constraining the wrong things, etc. I was also running into rotation issues with the arm systems when I constrained the Pole Vector control to the it's IKhandle. Once I redrew my joints, double checking to make sure that my arms were planar with a slight bend in the arm systems, I was able to correct my mistake. Now that I have completed the rig, I was able to learn from my mistakes and I feel a lot more confident about my rigging skills now.

The only script used on this rig was a padding script for the joints just for the sake of saving me some time. Other than that, everything was created manually. There is not a face on this model, so I did not have to worry about doing a facial rig or blend shapes for this model. I am highly encouraging critiques on this rig and appreciate them as well! I feel like it is at a finished point, but there is ALWAYS room for improvement so I would love to hear from other fellow riggers and make any improvements to it that are needed. Thank you, in advance!