Week 9

So last week I said I would catch up with the zebra, but I encountered a little problem. Nothing was organized and everything was a mess. Controls weren't grouped, clusters were out in the open, some controls were parented under other controls, and some item coordinates were not frozen. So this week was all about doing that instead. If you can't keep your work clean, how can you expect others to use your rig, let alone have the rig work itself. Here are some pictures to show that the giraffe is mostly done and the zebra is closing in behind.

I have also been testing out nvidia's shadowplay so I can start making videos for the rigs themselves. I got it to work, but I don't feel comfortable with taking the videos just yet. Next week. In the meantime, here is a little video I took of the giraffe before the cleanup.

Giraffe from Travis Souza on Vimeo.

(Post note: It seems my middle mouse button is acting funky in maya. I hope it isnt broken)

Week 8

Halfway through the semester. So I went about trying to fix a little IK problem I found with my helper IKs. I noticed that two of my IK handles in the front legs had mysteriously disappeared at some point. So I went in and added them in as I was making the Helpers for the front legs.

I was not sure what was going on, but I was able to fix it despite taking several hours to figure out the situation and as to why everything was acting funky. Because the bottom of a giraffe's foot is so different in it's build (I blame the foot being off the ground) It makes determining where IK handles go a little difficult. But at last, I've fixed them. Al be it with a little awkwardness. But nothing a little pole vector constraint won't fix. Sadly the stretch controls are not all working properly, so I'll have to fix that this weekend.





So I've been beating up this giraffe in my mind and my peer Cameron is wishing for his rigged zebra. So next week, I am returning to it and essentially copying all of these controls over to it.

Week 7

Week 7 was a little bit of a hassle because I ran into a interesting problem that I personally caused myself. Before I get there, I went in and parented all of the controls in the appropriate order in the outliner. Everything flows now.

Now my problem occurred when I started playing with the IKs in the legs. I decided to put in a helper IK system as I was taught to when I first learned how to rig, but then I went and decided to play around with the IK settings and all hell broke loose. Even the helper was practically destroyed and I was freaking out as to where I needed to even begin on fixing it. I first went and put all the settings I played with back to their original setting, but low and behold, that didn't work. So now I had to figure out how to fix this properly. I went in and broke the leg system appart, took down all connections, deleted joints that were not mirroring the other side, and even deleted a few IKs. It took me a few hours to fix, but I was able to get it working again in it's original state before I messed with the controls.

Because the giraffe's leg is so long and it's knee starts so high up, simply lifting the foot control causes the knee to extend instead of bend, so a flex control was necessary to counteract this little flaw. But it works and looks fine, just requires an additional control. At this point, all 4 legs have helper IKs and flex controls. I wanted to get around to the stretchy back and legs, but it's been a very busy week. ("Life finds a way" - Ian Malcom)

Week 6

Alright, another week and more work to be done. This week I went and put in controls, ik splines, and cluster controls for the neck, back, and tail. Not really much to say here that is analytical or different from the Zebra. So I will just Present the pictures. Although, I do have to say, I noticed that I had attached the ear joints to the first neck joint, so I fixed that.

Next week I will move onto what stumped me last semester on the wooly mammoth. The stretchy legs and stretchy back, and I will perfect it until I get it down pat. I will also go back and continue retopologizing the giraffe's eyes, because I'm going to need those to be good enough for blend shapes.

Week 5

Last week was a major set back in terms of re-mapping topology. My frustrations are justified, I spent 8 hours retopologizing, an hour putting in the skeleton as well as orienting it and giving it ik handles. But, I have to move on, and to give myself a break, I began to work on the giraffe.

Retopologizing this one wasnt as bad as the crocodile was, but it still took time despite what I started with.

But, after many hours, my efforts are fortuitous.











However, there is a point where I just have to move on, such as the head here. I got really frustrated in this area, but this is not the worse of it. Now, I get it; downloading models can come at a cost. Some aren't ready for animation. Some are made of nothing but tris with no quad pattern to go back on. But I do have one question...

WHO USES SPIRALS FOR LEGS?!

I'm not even aware that that is even a technique! I've asked several peers if they have even seen this before, and a few of them say this is the result of using zbrush' zremesher. But I never used zbrush on this specific model yet, and just by looking at the flow of that spiral, I'm betting this is how it was made.

 Moving on, I went in and created the skeleton. Now, for a short necked animal or a character, you would probably need only a few joints, if not only one. But a giraffe has such a long neck, you're gonna need more. Now, to be more realistic, I went in and gave it 7 joints, one representing each vertebrae in a giraffe's neck.

 Now I downloaded this model and it came with a tongue. Normally I would have deleted it and moved on, but after thinking about it, a giraffe is also well known for it's very prehensile and long tongue. So I went ahead and gave it a few joints as well.





Last I put in the IK handles for the legs. Basically the same setup as the zebra, just longer. Next week I'll be putting in the controls for the giraffe and also going back to the zebra to shorten the tail, use some blend shapes for the stomach and mouth, as well as add in the IK splines for the neck, back, and tail.