Rigging an alien

I have still struggled to figure out why the left arm of the rig I was constructing was causing so much issue when it came to binding the model to the rig.  I attempted to reconstruct the left arm but when I moved it, the elbow joint started moving very erratically.   Furthermore, I was unable to parent the joint in between the elbow and the wrist.

I have decided to start the tutorial again, and I will just do anything that I remember or feel confident with doing, by myself and anything that I do not remember, I will look at the tutorial videos.

Rather than simply rigging the model that came with the tutorial from scratch, I have decided that it will be a better use of my time if I attempted to rig a different character model; a model that would still be humanoid, but would be challenging enough for me to apply my knowledge and learn what I did wrong and what I did correctly before.

Through browsing the web site, SimplyMaya.com, I came across this alien character, which was modelled by a user called Pizzicat.

This character is fairly simple and not too different in shape from the model that I began rigging previously.  However, there are some quite good opportunities here to apply my rigging skills in quite creative ways, namely his hands and feet, which comprise of three long fingers and long toes respectively.  This will allow me to be quite inventive about the placement of joints in these parts, particularly the toes, as the previous model only consisted of a foot without the toes modelled.

Furthermore, I will get the opportunity to experiment with some blend shaping in the face of this character.

The first thing that I will do before rigging this alien is to select the Geometry and then delete the history.  This is because a lot of modellers that I have worked with have often forgotten to do this, despite the fact that it is a fundamental rule of modelling.  I have done this, just to avoid any major issues later on in the process.

Over the next few posts, I shall document the progress that I make with applying a rig to this model.

Fully coloured Emperor Design

As promised in the previous post, here is a fully coloured character design for the Emperor.  I drew this in Photoshop and I also installed some Watercolour-style brushes to colour it in, which is why this image has the slight look of a watercolour image.  Obviously, the only way to really achieve the look of watercolour paint is to actually do it, but I felt that doing this digitally would give me more opportunity to experiment with colour.

I decided to go for a yellow, green and red colour scheme.  I borrowed colours and patterns from several images of the Jade Emperor and then combined them to create my own character.    Obviously, I will soon need to incorporate more patterns into the design of the character as he does look somewhat plain at the moment, and I also would like to try out other colour schemes and combinations as I develop the design.

Emperor Character Designs

Here are some sketches that I have done for the Emperor character.  In all of these, I stuck to the iconic image of the long moustache and beard, along with the draping robe; but I have tried to experiment with variations such as hat size and also age, weight and height.

This is one of the first sketches that I did when I was practicing drawing out the Emperor character and getting a feel for how he should look.

This is another fairly early sketch.  The Emperor is supposed to be a fairly enlightened character and I tried to portray him here as he was addressing his crowd and elaborating on how difficult this race will be, along with how only the greatest and most determined animals can win.

This is one of my favourite drawings of the Emperor, I also did a colour version of this drawing that I shall post up in the next blog post.  I got the hang of drawing the bearded and robed emperor, so now I started experimenting with the style of the character and bringing out specific traits.  I think I was trying to portray him as he was congratulating the winners of the race in this image; I also needed to convey that this is a joyful character.

In this sketch, I was trying to make him seem a bit more modest; he is joyful in nature, but he also exercises some discipline and self-restraint, that an emperor typically exercises in public life.  I also drew this to figure out how his clothing should sit on his body, particularly on his arms.

In the previous images, I had drawn the emperor a short, chubby and jolly; in this one, I tried to determine what he would look like if his appearance was more mature and what he would look like if he was tougher.

I considered the possibility of having quite a technically accurate and stiffened character design, against the more cute and caricatured designs of the animals; much like with the Sorcerer and Mickey Mouse in the Scourer's Apprentice segment of the 1940 film, Fantasia.   However, when I discussed this with the rest of the group, we decided on the short, chubby and cheery portrayal, so I continued doing character designs for that.

Here is another drawing that I did in the style that I had established a few drawings back.  In this one, I portrayed him declaring his congratulations to the winning animals.  I am quite pleased with the pose in this one as I like how the right half of the Emperor's body is animated and joyous as he is congratulatory, but the left half of his body is more stiff and reserved.

Lastly, here is a concept drawing I did of the Emperor shaking hands with the rat after coming first place.  I had done several standing poses, so I drew this one to figure out how he will look bending down to shake the rat's hand and also how robe moves as he moves.

From this sketching, I have decided that I will probably portray this character as more human and slightly less like a deity.  When I wrote the screenplay, I had a more human and authentic emperor in mind; one that is joyful and happy, but also fairly austere, and this is what is what I have been trying to achieve through this sketching.

Jade Emperor reference

For the Cat and Rat Project, I have been given the task of designing the character of the Emperor.  The character in the story is loosely based on that of the Jade Emperor, the head deity of the Taoist religion.  I have collected various images of him as reference for when I draw up the character design.

The Jade Emperor is portrayed wearing clothing of very different colour schemes in every image; but they all seem to have either red, yellow or green.  The Jade Emperor is virtually always portrayed sitting down; when I wrote the screenplay, I did give him some walking and standing actions.  I will probably retain the walking and standing as that will allow for greater animation opportunities.

My character designs for the Emperor character are to follow.

Rigging

This post is probably long overdue, but I am writing this to declare that I shall be looking to advance my rigging skills for the Advanced Skills unit.  I have chosen Rigging, as I have a basic working knowledge of rigging, probably more experienced than a fair amount of people in my year, but at that, it isn't very extensive.

In order to improve my rigging, I have made use of a tutorial on character rigging from Digital-Tutors.com.  This tutorial covered all the important areas of rigging including, Locators, setting up joints, parenting, different forms of constraints, IK handles and IK/FK switches.  After doing this tutorial, I have developed skills such as creating controllers for certain joints, as well as putting in locators and putting joints in the hands.  I had previously struggled with putting joints in the hands.

Here is an image of a rig that I fitted into this model.  It has colour co-ordinated controls for the Right and Left side of the rig, controllers made from curves for the hips, chest and neck; and I have also used the Set Driven Key option to establish some clenching in the fists as well as Ball and Toe curls in the feet.

When I bind this rig to the skin of the model, you will see that it mostly moves correctly, when I move certain controllers.

However, there is a fairly major problem with the right arm; when I move the chest controller, the right arm, and part of the surrounding area, starts to break apart and drastically alters the shape of the model.

I have been trying to figure out if it was anything to do with how I constrained the joints and controllers using Point and Parent constraints.  I had some difficulty trying to remember the correct use, particularly when constraining the wrist curve to the hand controller.  I may have to rebuild this arm's joints and controllers entirely from scratch and pay better attention to the video tutorial, before I can move on to the next stage, which will be painting the weights.

Once I feel confident with following the steps in this tutorial, I will try and apply what I have learnt to another model, hopefully one from a project that I am working on to build my portfolio, but if not, I will find one on the internet.

Green light... denied!

The tutors have not chosen my project to go through with production. I am disappointed naturally, but I have decided not to beat myself up over this and take it on the chin.  Even though my pitch went pretty well, I think the project did not get chosen was maybe because it was a bit too complicated and maybe I would not have had enough time to tie up the rest of the loose ends in the story line.

One of the things that I had decided a few days back was that I was going to keep cool, regardless of the outcome.  I had planned that if the Arcade film project was to get green lit, then I would be a director, which I would have quite liked, and I would have formed a team and made it the focus of the year to get the final film done.  As the film has not been given the green light, I have shelved the project for the time being; hopefully I get to develop it at some point in the future.

I have decided instead that I am going to freelance my skills and work on several of the film projects which did get the green light and build my portfolio at the same time.  Character Animation is my main specialism and I have therefore offered this skill around to various directors.  Rigging and Character Designs are skills that I have chosen as sort of secondary specialisms and I have also decided to offer these skills for who ever needs them.  With Rigging, I am still at quite a basic level, I can barely even call myself an intermediate; but I am hoping to really develop this skill further in the upcoming units; particularly Dan's unit.

So far, I have approached a few directors regarding working with them and it looks like I will be working on the following projects:

• The Obsessionist: A mixed media project by Dominique Urquhart which she has requested some rigging and CG animating for; and also some green screen and compositing stuff, which I would be keen to get into.  I was really intrigued by this idea when I saw it pitched and the mixture of stop motion, CG and maybe 2D to make this portrait.  Working on this piece will allow me to develop several skills
• The Cat and the Rat: A CG project being made by Lily Blacknell, Olivia Walters and Sarah Strickland; they want this done in the style of japanese painting.  They seemed to have storyboarding done so this project would be good opportunity to build up my Artist folder with texture art.  They will also need some help with animating and also some extra hands with the rigging, although I think Oly is specialising in rigging.

If I get involved in any other projects, I will be sure to document it here.  I did put my name out for a lot of the projects today.

Feedback from Thursday's Pitch

I haven't blogged in a few days but I am just posting to say that I pitched my idea and I have received feedback. They all really liked my idea which I am glad about.  The main advice that they gave me was that I could make it look a lot more abstract.  I showed them the trailer for We are the Strange and they all appreciated the chaotic surrealism, and they said that I should aim for this and not conform too much to narrative.

They also stated that I should really avoid the fist fighting that I displayed in one of my pieces of concept art and be more inventive about the type of competition or combat that these characters engage in.  I have decided to take this on board and I have decided to look at existing arcade games to see what I could do with my characters. I may also work this out when I get some storyboard artists on board.

It has been really good to pitch and hear mainly positive feedback about my film concept. It has also been good to watch and listen to other people pitch their ideas as well, as there are some really great concepts that I am looking forward to seeing. It seems as though this year is going to be a lot more arty and we are going to have a lot more freedom to use our tools, whereas the second year, I found to be very technical and it sometimes felt as though there was only a "right" or "wrong" way of doing things.

We are going to have to wait until Thursday to see which projects have been given the green light. I have a plan regarding what I am going to do after the decisions have been made on Thursday; if my project gets chosen, then I will be a director for the year. If not, then I will just freelance and help others out on their projects; particularly the animating, rigging and character design.

I am going to be pretty calm about this for the time being, at least until Thursday.