RIGGING
Spider Rig from Gently
Rig Demo of the Spider from Gently
Neat Rig Features:
A-B Controls: I studied up about spider walk cycles, and there was a neat reference on youtube about how to animate a spider walk cycle. Using that as a reference I devised what I call the "A-B system" for the legs. This would make rigging the spider's movement easier and faster for the animators. The legs on either side of the spider were divided into "A" legs and "B" legs and each pair could be selected together.
The rig also has both IK and FK controls for the legs to allow the animators more options to achieve their desired results.
Spider model modeled by Etienne Doucet-Leger. Rig design and development by me.
Rig of the Character from Paint
I originally wanted to build a more complex rig that used both Forward Kinematic and Inverse Kinematic joints for both the arms and the legs. However due to time constraints, I considered what I needed that would make cleaning up the motion capture data the easiest for me and what could be considered "unnecessary" or "extra" and did not add that. This resulted in IK controls on the legs and FK controls on the arms and back.
I originally wanted a full facial rig, however building that would take a lot of time that I didn't have if I wanted to complete the assignment on time, so I developed 4 basic blendshapes featuring the expressions I would need. They could also be used together to create more natural or varied expressions as well, as seen above.
I developed this rig in the process of developing an Augmented Reality app that would recognize an image and present an animation to the user. This was my first attempt at rigging a quadraped and skinning a character.
Shadfil copyright © Meem Cultural Productions.
This rig is displayed with the permission of Meem Cultural Productions.
The model was provided by Meem Cultural Productions. The rig was developed by me.
Miscellaneous Rigs
The pens and pencils were rigged so that moving them would cause them to roll as well, and the eraser and ruler would jitter while moving, so animators didn't have to worry about that. I did this voluntarily without being asked to expedite the animation process.
Disclaimer: I did not model any of the models seen here. I simply rigged them.
A demonstration of my ability to script in Maya
Language Used: python
Program Used: Autodesk Maya
Personal Contributions:
- pot generation
- spiral aloe succulent generation
- UI design and development
- material assignment
Isabelle and I developed a Succulent Generator using python. Using the UI users can two types of succulent with varying leaf width, height, density, and waxiness. Users can also create two types of pots to plant their succulent in.
The succulent types feature
- a spiral aloe
- a bulbous cactus developed by Isabelle Chen
The spiral aloe was built using the Fibonacci sequence found in nature. It would generate a series of cones in that pattern with the sizes increasing from the center out to the edges of the plant.
