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.