Rigging

Progress in Rigging

I have finally gotten around to getting better at rigging. I’ve tried it a few times, but have not put forth huge amount of effort into it, usually just preferring to animate or model. But the times, and a want to be more professionally competent have required that I know how to rig. In my past few months of freelancing, I’ve had to rig a few large items and characters. Each one has presented its own difficulties and experiences, so I’ll go ahead and layout just what I did and what I liked and would do different next time.

8x8 Bug : This character was developed for some introduction animations and possible future animations as well for 8x8, Inc. Ultimately, it was hardly used due to a change in direction later on, but I certainly got some knowledge out of it.

The first thing I noticed was that this character did not fit any of the standard character types I was familiar (bi-ped, quadruped), however it did share a few similarities with the bi-ped style so I went in that direction. The logo lent itself towards characterization, with two legs on the bottom, a little waist, and then two arms with some makeshift hands coming out the top. There was no head, so that would make things easier. 

I attempted to go with a joint based rig here, with IK/FK arms and legs. But the design of the character did not make this a good choice (at least not with my level of experience). I found that the legs would only work going sideways and would not allow for any kind of forward movement without destroying the geometry. The arms worked a little bit better, but there were just too many joint which were required to maintain the round shape to give a natural feeling arm. The rig was just too fussy, so I abandoned this approach.

My next attempt was better, though still not ideal. This time I created an lattice deformer box 5x5x3, I then created clusters from the control points on the array. I then created a simple Spline and joint structure utilizing the clusters. Essentially, I had a spine go up the center, and then 5 horizontal arms on each side that would then be controlled via an FK method. The rig actually allowed for a reasonable amount of fines, but it was clunky and still did not allow for some of the control that I was really hoping for.

For my final attempt, I went back to the drawing board and decided to rethink how I wanted to approach this. I thought that I should treat is essentially as a flour sack, that all animators are familiar with. So with this in mind I set out and created a stretchy rig that could twist and jump and deform cleanly, and I would forgo the complex arm and leg animations. I designed two controls, one on the top and bottom each which would stretch and deform in relation to one another. The stretch allowed me to get 180 degrees of twist before the geometry would break, so it allowed me a reasonable amount of leeway. I also added in the lattice deformer I had developed before, though simpler, on a layer underneath the stretchy part of the rig. With this, I could then manipulate the shape of the character further to achieve the exact look I wanted.

The final rig proved quite intuitive and easy to animate with, albeit somewhat simple, it cleanly got the job done. What I really wish that I could have accomplished (aside from my initial goal) is to have a way to pivot from the “feet” better when walking. At the moment, it really can only bounce around, but with the proper time given can be made to penguin walk - I really wish I could have developed an intuitive means by which to penguin walk.

Ford F-150 : This was my first vehicle that I’ve rigged, and although simple, I am quite happy with it all in all. My main issues with it actually stem from the geometry which limits my abilities. However, the animation I developed this for did not require doors to open, windows to roll down, or any number of detailed rigging aspects. The truck itself is basically just a body shell, with a basic interior, axles, and wheels.

The rig itself is pretty simple, the main control of course moves the truck and all the other controls aside from the master. When the car moves forward and back, the wheels move along with it, so there is no need to do any additional animation or counter animation, it simply follows along. 

The front wheels have the ability to rotate side to side in unison. The effect all in all works fine, but for some reason it also moved the wheel detail controls doubled, though it does not affect how these work luckily - it only means it can be more difficult to select those controls if the wheels are turned sharply. The wheel detail controls allow for the animator to fine tune each wheel individually, rotating in all directions, as well as translating up and down to account for shock or other such events as running a pot hole or going over a log, or whatever.

The chasis also has a control that allows for the body to move independently of the wheel base. In this way, the animator can easily account for the weight shifts in turns, going over bumps, or someone moving inside the car. This control really adds some nice extra detail that can help sell a shot I’ve found.

All in all, the rig works great. My only issue with it, is that it is simple. I really wish to add more detail. I have another vehicle in my pipeline coming up with which I will apply what I learned here and then some. Namely, I’d like to have the doors be able to open and close, handles be able to be manipulated, a front hood and trunk be able to open, windows be able to roll up and down, rear view mirror be able to move, and be able to create a switch to turn on headlights, tail lights, and blinkers. I think each of these items should be easy to accomplish, I just have to think ahead of time when i am creating the geometry itself. It’s a project I look forward to tackling soon.

Helios Helicopter : This is another vehicle that I designed. While this one had fewer controls, they were arguably a bit more complex. The geometry was much better this time around and allowed for me to accomplish everything that I wanted to do.

The primary control works exactly the way it should, being able to pitch, roll, and yaw with no issues. The rotor blades had a control that allowed for manual movement, which has proved great for small movements. I also created an expression that would allow for me to set an attribute to an integer and the rotors would automatically spin at a desired rate, which would allow me to not have to worry about animating degrees rotation.

I used the expression again for the tail rotor to the same effect, which has cut tremendous time from my animating workflow. The tail had some complexities to it as well. For reasons pertaining to the project, there were two different tail types: one with a rotor, and one without. So I created a simple switch that would turn on the visibility of each one, allowing for the animator to fluidly switch between the two depending on the needs of the particular shot.

The tail flaps were set driven keys allowed for about 50 degrees rotation in either direction. It was all that was needed as anything more looked physically impossible. 

The landing gear was on set driven keys as well, with flaps opening on one attribute and the landing gear descending with another. I was quite pleased with the level of control I could achieve with set driven keys in all the attributes.

I was quite happy with this rig, however there are a few things I learned that I would do differently next time. The first thing is I should not have chosen to use integers for my set driven keys and will instead use a float next time. Integers did not allow me to achieve the fluidity I would have preferred in slower animations, thus resulting in sometimes blocky animation. I also would change my expression to allow for the spin to always increasingly go faster, rather than just stop at a certain rate. The rotor blades tend to not look like they spin that fast, which I have had to compensate for. 

Aside from that though, I really just want to make a more complex helicopter or aircraft with weapons compartments and more detailed flaps, gear, and other components.

A Year In Review

Wow, so it's been a long while since I've posted anything on here.  It's been nearly a year, and a lot has happened since then.  When I last wrote, I had just been accepted to a position in California and was taking my steps into the industry.  In March, I married my wife Briana and we continued to live in San Jose.

Shortly after that, I experience one of the true big experiences associated with the industry - "restructuring".  I was promptly, unceremoniously, and without any prior warning laid off.  I could be more forgiving it weren't for the fact that corporate had already hired replacements downstairs.  The company broke our contracts, though through a legal loophole, there was nothing we could do.  Our contracts stated that we could not be fired or let go unless we broke company policy for at least a year - but because they "restructured", our positions were no longer financially viable or available, thus they were able to hire cheaper workers for "new" positions.  But I digress, I hold no grudge against the managers of the office there, only against the corporate offices.

But with that being said, things have somewhat taken a turn for the better.  Getting laid off is somewhat scary, especially in a place like Silicon Valley where everything is more expensive than you can afford.  Luckily, Briana had a few connections and I managed to get a consulting job with a large communications company, and I started working as a contractor for them, animating various videos and odd jobs that needed doing.  This worked pretty well at first.  And it was pretty nice being able to work from home. But what was first stated as a 40 hour a week gig, slowly waned to 30, then 20, then to a as needed basis.

First lesson of freelancing, always be searching for clients.  Briana luckily for me, managed to find me many clients, and we began to work together with her reaching out to clients and then me doing the animation and graphics work.  This is a formula we've pretty much stuck to to this day.  Work managed to trickle in well enough.  I started diving into explainer style animations. But California was getting much to expensive to maintain on this lifestyle, and without a reliable steady client to count on, we had to bail.

Our options were dwindling, so we decided to look back to some of our previous plans before we jumped to Cali.  South Korea.  We decided though, that we weren't up for teaching this time, we just really didn't want to deal with the kids that much. But, due to the nature of how we were working now, there was nothing holding us to any particular location, so long as we had an internet connection, we could do what we wanted.  So we looked and found a house sit in South Korea and began on our new adventure.

We left California in August, and traveled back to Florida.  Here we left our cats and a few belongings such as our cars with our parents.  We spent two months (very long months) traveling Florida, working, getting our medical papers up to date, and other various international necessities.

We then left the US in October, spent a day in Dubai, and then landed in Seoul.  Now we're living and working in Songtan, South Korea.  The work has been somewhat steady, admittedly lighter than would be preferred, but it has allowed a wonderful experience of the country.  We started a blog documenting our travels: http://marriedwithmaps.com/ .  We'd like to spend longer here - actually the more we are here the more we feel that we could live indefinitely here - but our visas only allow us 90 days here.

I currently am talking and interviewing with a studio in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia as a character animator.  So in January, that will be our destination.  Whether it will be fruitful or not, we don't know, but it is not a worry to us.  We seem to managing just fine, and we'll just proceed on to the next destination.

I plan on being a bit more active from this point on, I have a few projects that I've worked on that I plan on talking about.  But that's all for this particular post.