Week 2

This week I tried to hammer out some more of the geometry for the crocodile and the lion, but it's a slow process. Fortunately, I got some advice on using Mayas quadrawl or Z-Brush's remesh tool, which will definately speed up the process. But until then, I have focused on starting the rigging process on one of the models which is for certain, ready.

 

The Zebra is an interesting skeleton for a few reasons. One being, as said earlier, the jowl is far away from the jaw joint of the head.

 Second, the zebras leg, like most ungulates, is very different from how it is laid out, but still the same in how many joint sections it has. Like every mammal, it has a clavicle, a shoulder, an elbow, a wrist, a palm, and fingers. It also has a hip, a knee, an ankle, a heel, and toes.

This project has a secondary goal that is more personal. Last time I rigged a quadruped, I did really well, but had numerous issues in very important areas such as the legs and the stomach. I am now addressing the issue with the stomach here:

What happened last time was that when the quadrupeds legs moved, its stomach sort of wrinkled and has a noisy effect on the polygons nearby. I realize now that the issue was because this section of the body needs its own end joints in order to curve and flex properly without that distortion. This way, the polys will be weight mapped to these end joints, which will be affected by how the spine bends, just like most animals.

Next week I will work on the poly layout of the croc and lion in the lab since Z-brush is SUPER expensive. I will also add controls to the zebra and start constraining them as well.