So a few updates, but nothing radical.
The golem:
Still trying to figure this golem out overall. Modified the right arm so that it just runs on an SCsolver and some orient constraints, while the left arm uses an RPsolver, but has no real palm or wrist beyond the radius and ulna twist. Also added a new control to the stump, so that it can be offset a bit from the main body, though I'm contemplating making it a separate entity like the stones. Also streamlined the foot rolls into one node.
I'm honestly glad I took a semester away from this thing, because now I can look at it and see what can change to streamline things, as well as fix some readability in the controls.
Studio X
Things are wrapping up, and most everything that was worked on has been cleared. There was a minor hiccup with one file where the skin had been detached and re-bound by someone else on the team, leaving the weights in a poor state due to Maya's lackluster import weights function, but nothing serious enough to cause panic. A short time later, it was fixed, and I proceeded to make other fixes to the rig as a whole.
Beyond these, not much to report on. With the semester coming to a close in the next few days, work will shift back onto the golem with some more refinement and, thanks to a few friends of mine, animation testing.
Cheers,
Dan Rico
Thursday, July 31, 2014
Saturday, July 26, 2014
Updated activities as of July 26th, 2014
Still under several NDA agreements relating to all of the projects I am on, I will try to explain, as best as I can, what I've done in class thus far.
To start, the one project that wasn't under an NDA, was a bull character rig that needed fixing. Nothing too extreme, in that it needed some paint weight corrections, adding in some controls to replicate the muscles shifting beneath the skin of the shoulder, some pole vectors on the legs, and a better spine system. Add to this an adjusted tail control system and some controls on the testicles, as well as the loose skin beneath the neck, and that sums up the changes.
From here on, I can't say much about the projects, so I'll try to be detailed without revealing anything about the project.
First, this project is not a student collaborative project, but one from outside the AAU system. The initial idea was to create a proof of concept for a character, showing that it was possible to rig the character, as well as maintain the integrity of it's design and the film's aesthetic.
While the first pass proved the idea, it still needed work, so it's been a matter of making slow changes. So far, some attributes have been combined into one, such as the foot rolls, while other attributes have been given their own controls outside the primary rig. What makes this project a little more unique is that it required a duplicate rig to control a similar set of geometry, yet the geometry itself holds a different purpose compared to the primary geometry. The various portions of the geometry, on both the primary and secondary rigs, had to be somewhat modular in nature, in that they need to translate and rotate, regardless of the part of the body they were. Not a complicated task, at first, but due to the nature of the character, it wasn't particularly easy either.
The second project I was on, I ultimately had to leave due to the nature of the class and other projects that were stacking up that needed to be done. This project required a bird rig, which wasn't quite as difficult this time around, as I had built a bird rig on a previous project. Taking what I learned from that project, I applied it to this new rig, but in a much cleaner sense. There were a few revisions on some controls, such as a modified foot roll system, but due to some geometry issues, the project was delayed, ultimately leaving it to be given to another member of the studio x class while was assigned a new character that was ready to go.
The third, and current, project is currently the most complicated. It required three different rigs to be built, with the third being an accumulation of the other two. This one has proven to be the one I've learned the most from, in that having a maximum influence node enabled while weight painting can result in vertex weights flying to other influence object at the most inopportune times. Several of the limbs on the character are also a little more complex to work around, their function being snake like in nature. This piece, too, suffered delays in the modeling department, resulting in a large push recently that require the primary rig to fully functional for a test animation by the end of the night. Thankfully, that goal was met, and now it's just down to fine tuning and tweaks before being labeled complete.
On the side of all of this, I currently have an animator testing out my golem. Once things ease up in the studio X pipeline, I'm going to go in and start on the revisions they have listed thus far.
This is all I can disclose for now.
To start, the one project that wasn't under an NDA, was a bull character rig that needed fixing. Nothing too extreme, in that it needed some paint weight corrections, adding in some controls to replicate the muscles shifting beneath the skin of the shoulder, some pole vectors on the legs, and a better spine system. Add to this an adjusted tail control system and some controls on the testicles, as well as the loose skin beneath the neck, and that sums up the changes.
From here on, I can't say much about the projects, so I'll try to be detailed without revealing anything about the project.
First, this project is not a student collaborative project, but one from outside the AAU system. The initial idea was to create a proof of concept for a character, showing that it was possible to rig the character, as well as maintain the integrity of it's design and the film's aesthetic.
While the first pass proved the idea, it still needed work, so it's been a matter of making slow changes. So far, some attributes have been combined into one, such as the foot rolls, while other attributes have been given their own controls outside the primary rig. What makes this project a little more unique is that it required a duplicate rig to control a similar set of geometry, yet the geometry itself holds a different purpose compared to the primary geometry. The various portions of the geometry, on both the primary and secondary rigs, had to be somewhat modular in nature, in that they need to translate and rotate, regardless of the part of the body they were. Not a complicated task, at first, but due to the nature of the character, it wasn't particularly easy either.
The second project I was on, I ultimately had to leave due to the nature of the class and other projects that were stacking up that needed to be done. This project required a bird rig, which wasn't quite as difficult this time around, as I had built a bird rig on a previous project. Taking what I learned from that project, I applied it to this new rig, but in a much cleaner sense. There were a few revisions on some controls, such as a modified foot roll system, but due to some geometry issues, the project was delayed, ultimately leaving it to be given to another member of the studio x class while was assigned a new character that was ready to go.
The third, and current, project is currently the most complicated. It required three different rigs to be built, with the third being an accumulation of the other two. This one has proven to be the one I've learned the most from, in that having a maximum influence node enabled while weight painting can result in vertex weights flying to other influence object at the most inopportune times. Several of the limbs on the character are also a little more complex to work around, their function being snake like in nature. This piece, too, suffered delays in the modeling department, resulting in a large push recently that require the primary rig to fully functional for a test animation by the end of the night. Thankfully, that goal was met, and now it's just down to fine tuning and tweaks before being labeled complete.
On the side of all of this, I currently have an animator testing out my golem. Once things ease up in the studio X pipeline, I'm going to go in and start on the revisions they have listed thus far.
This is all I can disclose for now.
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