Update for the week of January 27th, 2014

So after a semi break between sessions, the opening week classes brought about some more work on the Curpigeon birds. A few nodes weren't functioning as they should, so some reorientation was needed to fix the issue. However, I was asked to add additional controls to the facial setup to the sixth pigeon. There is still an issue with the right wing, but I will need to ask the person who set up that bird on their method for it so as to fix the issue proper.

Meanwhile, I've returned to my golem once again, completing the vines that permeate it's being.

I've also added in the sapphire horns atop it's head. All that is left is to replace the tree on it's head, and the stump that acts as it's left leg. The reason for this is due to an earlier version of zbrush creating some none to friendly geometry. The poly count ended up ridiculous, as well as spiraling down some of the branches and roots. not optimal in any way for unwrapping. Speaking of unwrapping, everything was also unwrapped over the weekend, minus the tree and stump. This means I can start hunting for some textures to use, as well as experiment without the texture being mangled.

For this week, I'm aiming to begin the controls setup for the arms and spine. I want to try a ribbon spine system, considering that there isn't a rigid fixture between the hips and the rib cage. I've also been asked to clean up my naming conventions on the file, which I completely agree on, as I've been sloppy about it this time around due to my focus on the vine growth system, what with it being one of the key elements of this character. I'll attach some demonstrations below.

The vine animations need to be broken apart and attached to a better controller, as currently they are all driven by one, and run simultaneously with one another, as can be seen in the videos.

I'll also be test skinning the vine curves onto the rig to check for areas that may be problematic when the character moves. There is also the construction system that I need to work out. I'm considering creating floating joints that animate into place on the main rig. This way, an animator can place the various parts where they please, and have each one move into place. I'll need to consult my professors about this, as they might have an easier method..

Winter session wrap up

To close out the end of the winter session, I'll summarize the end results of both the curpigeon and my golem's work status thus far.

As a whole, I've technically built two rigs; the first being the 4 in 1 rig that took the whole of the entire session. The body types involved are the very thin to the fattest of the characters on the curpigeon project. It's not the most perfect rig in the world, as it still needs a low res mesh to be added so that animators won't have to fight with the rig doing calculations, and, unfortunately, some of the controls are stuck being inside the geometry, as the blend shapes made it difficult to move the controls into a better position, but overall the rig is a good success.
The second rig is for the fifth character names long beak, who's overal facial structure couldn't be added onto the multi rig. However, I simply stripped off the geometry from the main rig and reused it, with a bit of re-positioning. Do a bit of weight painting, and that character was said and done.

As to my Golem, I had to set it as more of a secondary project, but some progress was made. The constraint system for the stones was tweaked a bit more, so that the major pieces hold place fairly well, while smaller pieces have more wiggle room. I've also gone with using an IK system on the left leg's roots, so that the whole can be moved, or the roots can stick a bit when the leg is lifted up. I'll need to play with some influence objects relating to the vine curves, as a simple skin bind doesn't work as well as I would like.

Progress for the week of November 17th - 24th, 2013

Golem

While using the nDynamics system, It can simularte a spring constraint to get that floating aspect I'm aiming for. However, the points on the geometry tend to expand dramatically if there is rapid movement. Upon further testing, I've found that it works easier to use the stock settings on nCloth mesh, rather than to use one of the presets. I had thought that using the concrete preset would be best, but something in that setting results in the geometry expanding. Currently, stock settings between 2 ncloth objects cause them to phase into one another, and get their vertices stuck. For the time being, I will use the soft leather preset, as it seems to give a fairly decent result. I'll adjust it more as things progress, since I'm still noting some give in the stone's forms.

Curpigeon

More refining and fine tuning on the rig, being sure that things bend reasonably when the bird is flitting about. I ultimately went with a simpler system for the neck setup, using a broken chain system to allow for stretching. Added some small tweaks to the eyebrow controls, having a larger catch all control to move them about.

Progress for the weeks of November 3rd and November 10th

Curpigeon related:

At the request of the animators, I've retooled the wings on the rig, allowing for a more staggered range of movement. Now, if one were to move the arm control, the elbow and wrist would follow only in translation, rather than rotation. It took several trial and error sessions, and more skin weight adjustments toe get the wings to look passable, compared to it's earlier iteration. I've also added a wing fold control to the shoulder of each wing, though if the controls along the wing are not zeroed, the wings will break.

It has also been agreed on to do the singular rig for multiple birds, though a recent test showed that the other models built so far are not compatible with the base model, preventing the blend shape aspect of the rig from working properly. I may need to find another solution to this quickly.


Golem related:

more modeling work performed, adding in the arm vines network into the body, as well as the support vines for the left shoulder. I've also connected some of the brush nodes onto a simple control system to test the rate that the vines could move. While a nice representation of what I'm aiming for, the vines themselves need to be broken apart within the time of the controller, so a more refined control will be necessary for the construction rig.

The animation aspect of the rig may now have some new foundations, after I had asked one of my professors who had worked on the rock monster in "Galaxy Quest." He commented that the monster was actually a set of props built onto a single rig. The first set was just the big shape of the monster so that the basic movements could be done, verifying that an earlier idea I had for the rig wasn't far off. The second portion of the rock monster rig, which is what I've been struggling to get a good sense of how it would be set up, functions based on a dynamic spring system. The setup goes something along the lines of as follows:

A dynamic spring constraint is set between the joint of the rig system, and that of a particle. This will allow for the particle to slide about and jostle, while still being connected to the rig. From there, I would connect the stones I wish to have in place to the spring bound particle. via a group. From there, I would need to add another control to the stone for manual placement, should the stone stray too far from the course. I will need to test this potential system as well once time allows.

Progress Log for the week of October 27th, 2013

Not much to report on this week. Due to a recent job opportunity, I haven't had as much time to work on the golem or the pigeon. What little I did is as follows:

For the golem, more body structural formation via new vines placed and some joint placement tests. However, due to the abnormal limb sizes, I can't just mirror over joints, so I need to be cautious on how I orient them. I asked Jason Patnode in regards to how I could get an interactive system similar to that of the rock monster from Galaxy Quest. Though he demonstrated using a fractal texture and plugging that into the translation nodes of the stones, it doesn't quite match what I was aiming for. I asked another student in class, and they recommended using a rigid dynamic system, as it would be the only way to attain that free floating, yet interactive look I was aiming for. I'll have to make time to retry this system again, though I know that it will be very heavy on the system. Maybe I can bake in the animations of the stones interacting to help ease the load on the rig.

In terms of the pigeons, it has mostly been cleanup on the wings and neck area. Around Tuesaday, I received notes from the animators, requesting some more controls and deformation fixes. Stepping in to the class on Friday, there was a brief recap on said fixes, and some suggestions, as a scaling control system on the mouth, and a bending control on the top of the beak. Another suggestion, which I'm considering more than the others, is an IK/FK hybrid system for the neck, as well as a more detailed control over the feathers on the wings, as currently, the wings rotate based solely on the wrist and elbow. There was a request for feather bending, but I informed the animators that something like that is low on the priority list at this time.

Log for the weeks of October 7th through October 19th

7th - 12th

With the slow progression of the bird models I focused more efforts on building my golem.

The base structure itself now complete, I've begun to add the neck vines and create a small base plate inside the chest to have the back vines stem from. Most likely, I will modify it to look like the underside of a tree trunk, and place the energy stone at its center, then build outwards to help fill the rest of the chest.

I was introduced to a potential Ivy generator, in the hopes that it could serve to build the golem faster. However, upon obtaining the program, I came to learn that the geometry becomes too dense, and there is no direct control as to where the ivy flows to, rendering it a potential hazard. Were I to use it, it could potentially bog down the system and make the rig neigh unusable, as the poly count could potentially skyrocket.

As to curpigeon, things remained quiet for the bird models, so I continued to refine one of the human characters a little more before moving to other projects over the weekend.

20th - 27th

Curpigeon suddenly became the hot project for me, as I was asked to create a rig for a different character than I had been originally assigned. Monday turned into mostly joint relocation, as I duplicated the joint system from an earlier rig, and set them to the new character.

Tuesday brought about some more coverage on nCloth, which will become something I use in creating the stone collision system on my golem. However, I will need to create a new, lower resolution of the stones in order for it to work, as the current poly count would probably bee to high for it to function efficiently.

Wednesday became a class once again focused on the new pigeon character, placing controls and setting orientations. Nothing too extravagant, though there was talk between Jason, Hector(a fellow rigger on the project), and myself of potentially creating a universal rig. In order for this to work, though, we'd need to be sure that the geometry on the other five birds could work with the most average form of one of the overall 6 bird characters. Still, the main rig needed to be built, and that was my focus for the rest of the day.

Thursday became a mad dash of weight painting and some experiments regarding a broken chain hierarchy, or as a classmate had described it, a ribbon system. This proved quite useful when constructing the tendons on the wings, allowing for some better deformation than just letting the arm and elbow joints control the geometry. It is by no means a perfect solution, as there are still folds in the geometry, but with some controls added, it should work well. Adding a joint system for the feathers is proving more difficult though, but I may have a solution.

The lead rigger on the project sent me a tutorial on the rig setup for the human character faces, recommending that it could be used on the pigeon's face. However, I found it can function more effectively as a joint placement setup for the feather joints. The only real difference is that I would skin the controlling curves to the wing's joints to deform it. With locators acting as place holders, plus some orientation constraints coming from the outer most locators inwards, the joints effectively held place, and the feathers along with them. However, the setup is not ideal, as it causes a double transformation that I didn't have the time to work out. The lead rigger sent an example my way of something he whipped up, using a combination of parenting and orient constraints. With some mild modifications to the setup, I was able to get the feathers to track more accurately.

Log for the week of September 29th, 2013

While waiting for the final version of the pigeon models to be done, I was asked by the producers to help clean up two of the human rigs for the project. With those being more complicated that what I normally build, it took a bit to find my way around the inner workings to fix some of the issues. Beyond that, it consisted a great deal of weight painting.

Next up on the list is a bit of experimenting with fur in maya. I do not know if it will be particularly useful on my golem, but it doesn't mean I'll rule it out for aesthetic purposes.

Regarding the golem itself, I've completed the skull model and have blocked in more of the securing vines on the right leg, and build the back vine cover that will act as an anchor for the left arm.