Character Rigs

:THE GENTLEMAN:




The gentleman posed the biggest learning curve of the film, as this was the first rig I undertook. Completely rigged from scratch, my original estimation for completion was just under two weeks, when in fact the Gent took just over 2 months to fully rig.

LOCOSHOW_GentDemo from Antony Manley on Vimeo.

On reflection I threw myself in at the deep end with the main character of the film, as he had to be finished before any other character as his scenes had to begin straight away. This "jump in" attitude is what has really benefited me on this film concerning the rigging stages. Because our course has little to no tutoring in advanced character rigging or character setup, I was literally on my own when any problem occured with the rigs, both in building and finishing.

This self dependance to learn what has broken and why, without the assistance of tutors has led me to become quite profficient in my chosen career path.

The gent rig has the following features:

-IK/FK switching on both the arms and the legs
-IK stretch on both the arms and the legs (Controlled through an expression)
-FK spine
-Joint based facial controls
-Trouser controls
-Hair quiff control
-IK Shoulder follow influence (Shoulder can rotate with the body, or act independantly)
-IK influence (Can follow either the world, head or chest)
-Reverse foot lock with toewag control
-Teeth Controls
-Attachable/Detachable Cravat with its own controls
-Custom floating eye setup
-3 levels of smooth LowPoly, MidPoly, Highpoly

-----------------------------------

:THE COWBOY:

LOCOSHOW_CowboyDemo from Antony Manley on Vimeo.

The cowboy was the most hassle free rig to undertake on the film, the lack of arms on the character made for a fast rigging workflow, the facial weights did pose a big challenge, as I wanted to make the weights very muddy, so when his mouth is deformed its likes quite monstrous and I think I achieved it quite well.

The Cowboy Rig Includes:


-IK/FK Switch on the legs/dress
-Cigar follow influence (Follows jaw, keyed otherwise)
-Hat controls
-Arm stump controls
-Reverse foot lock feet, with heel raise, heel pivot, toe pivot, etc.
-Teeth controls
-FK Spine
-3 levels of smooth LowPoly, MidPoly, Highpoly
-Custom floating eye setup

-----------------------------------

:THE YOUNG LADY:

LOCOSHOW_YoungLadyDemo from Antony Manley on Vimeo.

The young lady was by far our most problematic rig on the film. If you take a look at James Daly's blog, concerning the original lady rig she was originally rigged using setup machine, while I was busy working in the early stages of the gent rig. But after we brought her into our production pipeline the setup machine rig was pretty much useless within our scenes, so I had to re-rig the young lady in 3 days flat. This was only achievable through my intensive work on the other rigs.

The Young lady features:

-IK/FK Switch on the arms
-IK/FK Switch on the legs/dress
-IK influence on the hands (Head, chest or world)
-Ponytail control
-Hair strand control
-Apron control
-FK spine
-Joint based facial setup
-Ik arm stretch (Controlled through expression)
-Reverse foot lock feet, with heel raise, heel pivot, toe pivot, etc.
-Custom floating eye setup
-Slider driven tongue controls, curl, wag and stretch
-Teeth controls
-Necklace control
-3 levels of smooth LowPoly, MidPoly, Highpoly

-----------------------------------

:THE OLD LADY:




Modelling for the old lady proved more difficult than the Gent character, as the skin had to look extremely saggy and very grotesque to say the least. But it took just under 2 days to model and UV ready for texturing and rigging. The old lady rig is very similiar to the young lady rig, as she has very limited movement in the film and she's extremely old, so we had a lot of liscence with how versatile the rig needed to be.

LOCOSHOW_OldLady from Antony Manley on Vimeo.

The main problem for the rig was the dress, James requested that the dress had the ability to billow and move much like a ballgown, like that worn by charlotte in Disneys Princess and the Frog. So through 4 joint chains around the dress, there are set driven key controls on the dress control, which means all layers of the dress can be manipulated at once, but aswell there are individual joint control curves for variation.


-IK/FK Switch on the arms
-IK influence on the hands (Head, chest or world)
-Top Bonnet Control
-Breast Controls
-Bow Controls
-FK spine
-Joint based facial setup
-Ik arm stretch (Controlled through expression)
-Custom floating eye setup
-Slider driven tongue controls, curl, wag and stretch
-Teeth controls
-Necklace control
-Earring controls
-3 levels of smooth LowPoly, MidPoly, Highpoly

-----------------------------------

:THE TRAIN:

LOCOSHOW_TrainDemo from Antony Manley on Vimeo.

The train posed a big problem in rigging, mainly because I wanted to achieve an automatic animation to the rig, so once the train was keyed on the translate X there would be set driven animation on the parts of the train, BUT this animation had to be turned off to also alow for hand animation on the various parts of the train, say for example the animator wishes to make one of the carriages rattle violently etc.

So this was done through keying the set driven key weights of the driven key nodes for the objects. Using the Main carriage as an example:



This method allows for desirable, staggered automatic animation on the train to show the impression of mechanisms affecting each other independantly, but with the keyeable switch to turn off the animation, you can mix in hand animation with the automatic keys.

-----------------------------------

:THE YOUNG OLD LADY:



The young old lady mesh will only be used in silhouette so the rig didn't need to be as complex as the main character rigs, so I simply took the young lady rig and bound it to a combined version of the young lady and the old lady mesh. This rig includes very basic features:


-IK/FK Switch on the arms
-IK influence on the hands (Head, chest or world)
-FK spine
-Ik arm stretch (Controlled through expression)
-Custom floating eye setup
-3 levels of smooth LowPoly, MidPoly, Highpoly

-----------------------------------

:CHARACTER EYE SETUP:

The eye setup for our characters was a tricky feature, as the eyes had to float on the eye cavity of the character, but be constrained to that cavity so our characters eyes wouldn't float around independant of the characters face. But also they had to follow the characters head aswell.

LOCOSHOW_Eyesetup from Antony Manley on Vimeo.

So using a combination of constraints attached to geometry and parent group nodes, we made it work. Using the left eye as an example:

-----------------------------------

Character Props

Here are the props I have both modelled and rigged for our characters to use during the duration of the film:

PocketWatch:
(Responsibilities: Modelling, Rigging)



Originally we had intended on making a full length chain to apply to the gent rig, which would be dynamic, or be a simple joint chain. But after testing and the fact that our rendering computers do not have maya hair to allow for dynamic joint chains, we decided against the inclusion of a chain, and went with a stand alone pocket-watch.
Suitcase and Napsack:
(Responsibilities : Modelling, Rigging)



Suitcase has both left and right pivot points for easy movement, handles also fully working.



Napsack has moving handles and cluster driven bag opening controls:



Cravat:
(Responsibilities : Modelling, Rigging)



There are 2 cravats, one that is connected to the Main Gent rig, which can be detached and independantly keyed at any time and another stand alone cravat which is to be used when another character grabs the gent and inadvertedly rips off his cravat.

Flowers:
(Responsibilities : Modelling, Rigging, Texturing)



The bouquet has a simple blendshape in the rig which allows the flowers to move in the wind as one, while also at the same time have 4 hero flower controls to allow for variation in movement.



FlowerPetal:
(Responsibilities : Modelling, Rigging, Texturing)



Just a 2 bend deformers attached the the rig, nothing major. This prop is to assist when the flowers start to die after the train attacks the gent with its steam burst.

Envelope/Letter:
(Responsibilities : Modelling, Rigging)



Textures by Ben Coulbrook, Letter follows the envelope master control, but has its own keyable curl controls aswell.

Photo:
(Responsibilities: Modelling, Texturing, Rigging)



Like the petal prop, nothing too complicated, just two bend deformers attached to the master control curve.

ANI13043 - Client Orientated Practise & Team Production

For this Unit I will be working on 3 projects, they are as follows:

Psychadelic Panda Invasion, Matthew D Bayfield
Responsibilities: Asset creation and setup

.:PANDA GATES:.
-Modelling

-UV Unwrapping-

-Rigging-

--------------------------------

.:PANDA-BOT:.

-Modelling-

-UV Unwrapping-

-Rigging/CharacterSetup-

-Rigging Notes

Rigging of the PandaBot was created using an indirect binding method which I like to call constraint binding.

Because the demands of the character have to be rigid body parts which can move together and opposing each other no deformation could occur at all on the geometry, but the geometry should not be selected either as a secondary action to selecting a control curve.

So using one of the arms as an example:

This way the geometry is controlled, like a rigid bind, through the specific CTRL null, but not selected, the CTRL Null is parented to the selected Joint, which houses the control curve. Eliminating mesh selection and allowing for easy editing of controls and constraints. This method also provided the fastest workflow aswell, as no skin binds be it rigid or smooth were created, no paint weights were required, nor membership set editing.

Cog rotation on the shoulders is purely secondary automatic animation, the cogs are driven through a multiply Divide node, so the cogs move at 50% rotation in relation to the arm controls Rot Y, X and Z.

CRIT AND TESTING:
-After initial crit and testing by Matt, I was given a list of improvements to address on the rig, which were corrected, some of which include:

- Elimination of unescessary controls
- Adding translate values to the feet to allow them to follow with the main torso
- Adjustment of the main head pivot point to allow for better movement in relation to the body - - Removing the target control from the eye turret as it is no longer needed.

PandaBot1.2
--------------------------------

.:PANDA TROOPS & PANDA KING:.

Responsibilities: Rigging/CharacterSetup

Panda Troop 1.2

Character rig includes:

-IK/FK Arms and legs
-IK Influence snap Arms (Chest, head and world influences)
-Full FK spine
-3 Levels of smooth, 0-3 Divisions available from Master controller 'Proxy' Slider
-FK ear controls
-Arm Paw rotate XYZ
-Leg Paw rotate XYZ

CRIT AND TESTING:
- Matt originally requested that I add in a secondary set of controllers, to which the IK handles of both the legs and the arms could be snapped to at the flick of a switch, but after initial crit on the rig he decided it was no longer nescessary. Also smoother hip deformation was requested, which was implemented at once.

.:"UNCLE JAM":.


The uncle Jam rig is exactly the same as the panda troop rig, as they are identical meshes, with only small differences. Uncle Jam has all the same features are the Troop rig, with the exception of the extra crown control.

Raw Rig shots:

IK ENABLED

FK ENABLED

--------------------------------

.:MOUSTASHROOM:.

Resonsibilities: Rigging/CharacterSetup

The character is required to bounce on the spot to the beat of the music score to the main film, so Matt requested keyeable squash and stretch controls on the character, aswell as the ability to bend the trunk and the head, but while remaining rooted to the ground.

Squash is controlled by a Null:

Squash Null > Scale X of Skinned joints

Then the squash null is driven through set driven keys by a slider on the head controller. Also volume expand on the bottom of the trunk is available through slider driven blendshape.

--------------------------------

.:SUAVE TURNIPS:.

Resonsibilities: Rigging/CharacterSetup

Suave turnip 1, basically consists of two squash and stretch deformers attached to the body shape, which is them controlled through set driven keys through the translate Y of the nurbs controller on the body. The control has its rotate and translate X and Z options locked off to avoid control slipping and squash breaking. The same applies for the hat, again a squash and stretch deformer SDK controlled through a nurbs control curve.

Suave turnip 2, much like the first turnip, has a squash and stretch deformer attached to the body, which is controlled through the translate Y of the squash control curve. The problem with this rig came when Matt wanted the leaves on the head to move with the squash but not be affected by it.

So I created an empty group null and snapped it to the pivot of the squash control curve. This was then matched through set driven keys to follow the squash control from its maximum to minimum values, the leaves were then parented under this empty group node, as so to allow the leaves to follow with the stretch to the desired effect. Also on the leaves there are two bend deformers which allow for overlap on the leaves.

---------------------------

SuperDope, Bacary Sane
Responsibilities: Crowd Scene setup

-Scene removed from film

This was a slowed down scene within bax's film where one of his main protagonists had just been shot. The scene would have revealed the bullet wound through the crowd of people to which the two are fighting within. The scene would have consisted of basic paralaxing layers of characters and assets to show the freezeframe nature of the event.

This is a playblast of the planning of the scene, unfortunately Bax has now removed the scene from his film.

--------------------------
DayDream Film, Adam Childs
Responsibilities: Marble Beach and scene setup

-Yet to be completed
---------------------------