The idea is the same, as pins are something you create yourself to control the parts you are interested in controlling. Here’s one example using the Pirate.
Step 1, load and make our first pin.
Step 2, loosen that arm such that we can bend it.
Step 3, go Interactive and try and touch that face.
Step 4, I’m not quite able to reach the face, it keeps getting away from me. So I’ll make another pin to hold it in place, and also gain control over it’s position and direction.
Step 5, profit. From here, you can parent these pins to your animation controls to work with the more traditional NURBS curves rather than these plain handles. You can also still rotate (and translate) the Maya joints themselves, for local control as opposed to the global control the Pin Constraint gets you.
Here’s a .rag file you can load.
pirate_withConstraints.zip (468.2 KB)
The Wyvern and Shark were created like this too, the rest is up to your imagination!