Introduction to Project Rigmarole

Second time with this project process. My last project I kept a weekly blog on was a centipede where I focused mainly on the rigging aspect, but the whole thing was made from scratch. I even dabbled in texturing for it with the ultimate goal of animating it. I scratched that goal halfway through because I wanted to perfect my rig. I did not finish by my deadline, but I finished it (abeit a different way than I first expected it) and now I am setting my sights on perfecting my rigging skills in an area I felt I fell short in the spring.

Quadrupedal rigging was really fun in my rigging class and I took on the challenge of rigging a woolly mammoth. It came out great except for a few problems with the legs and that is going to be one of my goals in this series of posts. I will be rigging several quadrupedal animals with the theme of being from Africa. My initial candidates will be a lion, a zebra, a giraffe, and a crocodile. The other point in this specific selection is to experience how the rigs themselves affect the models in different ways. A small example of this:

A lion's mouth is a lot like a generic quadrupedal animal's, it has jowl that goes far back to expose a lot of its teeth, its tongue, cheeks, and the back of the throat.

A zebra, on the other hand, has a jowl that comes up a little short, only really exposing the incisors while a majority of the mouth is hidden away. The rig for a lion would not be similar to that of a zebra for this reason, because when it comes to weight painting, the zebras cheeks have to keep that horse look, but the jaw joint still has to go all the way back to where it naturally is in a zebra skeleton.




Another example:

The giraffe is famous for it's long neck, and that is especially why it is on my list. Unlike most quadrupedal rigs (or even bipedal rigs), when it's neck bends, it needs to be more subtle, but still acquire the same result. It needs to be able to touch it's ear to its shoulder. But due to its length, this means it will require more joints than the usual rig in this area.

Last axample:

The crocodile is unique for its large and fearsome maw, but that is not why I have it on my list. It's legs can poke out more to the side when it walks than the other quadrupeds on my list and it's tails rotation range is more limited in vertical aspects, so I'll need to find a way to properly rig its legs while still allowing them to walk sideways and stand straight, while also restricting the animators ability to move the tail vertically.

My thoughts are that this choice of project isn't just to see how many animals I can rig in a few months, but it's also a study as to how the rigs differ and affect the model as a whole. In that sense, (and with a little play on words) I have dubbed this Project Rigmarole. Wish me luck, because it is going to be fun!