Rigging the dog - 04

Arms All set up...

Spine- adding the IK spline solver..

Allowing the Bones to bend how a back would adding clusters...

Rigging for our animation- What we need

Out Line...

Both Characters will need to run and Jump and be as flexible as possible.

I will need to make the characters IK stretchy so we can get a lot of exaggeration in the animation.

The marmot needs to hold the Food whilst he is running.

The eagles claws need to grip.

The wings need to bend. I could use bend handles for this.

They need to show expression in there faces. Blend shapes for the Mongol and marmot.

Rigging tests

Here is a Rig i am in the middle of doing at the moment, I have had a couple of problems where i have missed out vital steps, i also have been concentrating more on my other project, so hopefully ill get a lot more finished in the next couple of days.

Wing test-Bird

Here i was testing a curve for the birds wings instead of rigging them normally, i thought we could get a good wing flap from using a curve instead.

Maya2011 new rigging techniques- Research

Here is a video to show rigging techniques in maya 2011, it could help when rigging my characters. There are new skinning methods in the new program. which will help with the deforming of some of the joints when binding the skin. I found this helpful, so long as i can get the program to work for me in 2011

Bird rig- Research

A bird rig is very different to a normal character rig that is standing up, as with any four legged creature. I have rigged butterflys to get the wings moving, but i thought it would be good to get bird rigs to show how i should operate my eagle.

Here are a couple of riggs to look at to get an idea of the handles and rigg needed for our eagle.

New 2010 Paint Weights tool- Research

I have been doing some research into painting weights. Although i have not updated my mac to maya 2011 i have it on my home computer at home. I found out about the new tools from lecturer Dan and have gone on the internet to show me how the tool works. I think the tool could prove very useful when it comes to painting weights as using the regular method takes me a while to get right.

This bottom video isfor painting weights normally in maya 2008. this is the version i have of maya. If i can see and watch people do it themselves, i find i can learn quicker then looking through some of the books which i can find hard to understand at points.