[Timbo]

Hi Everyone.

New to the forums but wanted to start this thread in order to show the progress of my FYP.

FYP Title
An investigation into the best techniques for rigging a cinematic character, with evaluation through animation.


My plan is to rig a highly detailed character with full body and facial controls. I will then produce a short animation showcasing the rig, and evaluate how efficient and well all the features work. After evaluation I will focus on the rig, and implement any adaptations that will help the animation process. By evaluating the rig through animation, I hope to produce a detailed, complex, efficient rig.


I have been given kind permission by Michael Knowland, an ex-graduate of Staffs Uni, to use his 'Ranger' Character:




I'll be updating this thread in a bloggy way, showing my progress etc.

Thanks for looking.

Tim

[Tom Of Death]

Sounds sweet, looking forward to the animations

[Mike]

wow what a really bad character! i mean seriously what idiot made that "ranger"...

will be cool to see it rigged though =D

[Timbo]

Mike, on 29 October 2009 - 06:15 PM, said:

wow what a really bad character! i mean seriously what idiot made that "ranger"...

will be cool to see it rigged though =D

For the entire year I was taking the micky out of you choosing to build a muscley man, and now look at me. Oh how the tables have turned haha

[Timbo]

lexjackson, on 29 October 2009 - 09:01 PM, said:

Out of interest are you rigging a lower poly with a displacement on it?

This will be the full high poly version, totalling about 350k polys. I have chosen to use this character as it should provide some really nice results for facial animation. Well here's hoping!

[Timbo]

lexjackson, on 30 October 2009 - 08:12 AM, said:

Ah I was more wondering if you'd rig and control a lower poly version then displace it at render time. I don't know much about cinematic rigging so I assumed you'd do it like that. Do you need some serious specs to rig a 350k poly model? Or is it something you'd do in pieces or layers?

Well in order to have complete and fine control of the mesh it's important to directly rig the cinematic high poly mesh. Looking into Xform and low poly mesh substitutes is definitely something I will spend time on. At the moment the character is rendering with smooth shade, edges and real time shadows in the viewport at 60fps so this should hopefully not be an issue. Hiding layers is one way that would solve the problem, but I'd prefer everything to be viewable to the animator at the same time. Perhaps I'll use layers to give the animator a choice between controlling a high or low poly mesh, with the low poly mesh being linked to the same controllers as the high poly mesh.

[Daaaave]

Timbo, on 30 October 2009 - 09:46 AM, said:

Well in order to have complete and fine control of the mesh it's important to directly rig the cinematic high poly mesh. Looking into Xform and low poly mesh substitutes is definitely something I will spend time on. At the moment the character is rendering with smooth shade, edges and real time shadows in the viewport at 60fps so this should hopefully not be an issue. Hiding layers is one way that would solve the problem, but I'd prefer everything to be viewable to the animator at the same time. Perhaps I'll use layers to give the animator a choice between controlling a high or low poly mesh, with the low poly mesh being linked to the same controllers as the high poly mesh.

hey tim. i think you definately need to look into layering your rigs. or building up multiple rigging layers. trying to keyframe and watch a 350k model wont me pleasant experience, especially when you look at animating on top of of it with skin.

[Timbo]

Hello, time for a well needed update on my progress so far.

I've spent ages studying the rigging process and have learnt absolutely loads of useful stuff that I can put into the rig. I've been mainly investigating MaxScript and how it can enhance a rig.

To date I have researched:

Human movement and joints
Joint flexibility
The influence of muscle mass on joint flexibility
Bones
Blend Shapes
Skin Wrapping
Maxscripting
Rig GUI's
Skinning

Here are a few videos showing the what I've been working on.

1. Character Rigging Demo
Over the summer I created a facial rig and made a few animations with it. With the knowledge gained I'll be able to create a much more advanced facial rig for the Ranger character.

View on Vimeo.

2. Rig Colour Change Example
Here is an example of the MaxScript written to help the animation process. It shows the animator when the rig has been pushed too far.

View on Vimeo.

3. IK FK Switch Demo
Here is an example of the IK FK switch I have been working on. It used quite a bit of MaxScript in order to switch between IK and FK. With this system in place it gives the animator complete flexibility between an IK and FK system.
http://vimeo.com/9491337

P.S. If anyone knows how to embed videos into this post please let me know!

Cheers,
Tim