Tech Art

Friday, 24 July 2015

Tool

I decided to create my own picker tool that lets the user select the different controls and joints of the model. It's an easier and faster way to select the different parts of the rig. The tool is fairly simple but it features modifying the selection by pressing ctrl or shift as well as the option to either select the joints or the control shape / IK handle in case there is one.

If I had more time I would also have included the option to select all the different control shapes and maybe the option to change the values for the attributes for the facial expressions and the finger curl within the tool when the control shape is selected.

For reference and as a starting point I watched a few tutorials to give me ideas on what I could do:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjGa6j-rzIM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJB1Ek2Ko_Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGx8Fk6LPlc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJB1Ek2Ko_Y

http://www.digitaltutors.com/tutorial/1283-Getting-Started-with-Python-Scripting-in-Maya

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUkk7rcwtI8

http://www.creativecrash.com/maya/script/abxpicker

This was the inspiration for the tool

Skin binding

I made the mistake to bind the skin before completing the whole rig which caused a lot of problems, so I had to reskin the rig. The Smooth Bind already did a good job at binding the model. The skin weight painter was a tool that wasn't as intuitive and easy to use as it seemed at first glance but I believe that the model now deforms right in most places.

The only issue is that the eyes of the model don't have their own mesh and that moving the eyes deforms the back of the head but in the end it's not that noticiable. The same problem exists for the jaw but I unfortuenately didn't have the time to pick a different model or at least show a fully functional example of the two on a seperate model.

Facial expressions & Finger curls

It was a bit difficult to set up clear facial expressions because the lips of this model are inseperable which makes it hard to create a convincing smile. Other expressions like sadness, anger and the smirk were easier to create.

Here are some videos I used for reference:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qeOFibRmoo

I also followed the tutorial from the lab notes to set up the finger curl and finger spread.

Here is a video that I found which helped me during the process of setting up the attributes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_s1aenDmMs4

Face

For the face set-up I solely relied on joints. I also set up a control shape for the face with a set of attributes for the basic expressions. I chose to only add six different facial expressions because the model will be used in a game and not for animation purposes.

Creating the control shapes and IKs

Setting up the control shapes was fairly easy but it took me a while to create the IKs and I encountered a problem with the elbow as I wasn't able to create a pole vector constraint the right way and it was bending into the other direction. The underlying problem for this issue was the weight of the constraint and changing it back to its original value fixed the problem.

I used these videos for help and reference:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kopTFxxfMNU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vi5YkLYYU9w

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhH-PWmxS8c

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4kr-7_apAg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxogLUq1rd4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pj6TrmxhPew

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkKx9ijydjk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGRNJKQVIW4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0SB4U4ZQT8

Local Rotation Axis

Some of the LRAs needed fixing, especially my finger joints were a bit messed up and took the longest to fix but after a while I had all joints lying on the same axis.

Tuesday, 14 July 2015

Building the skeleton

I built half of the skeleton and mirrored the arms and legs. The majority of the skeleton was fairly simple to do with the exeption of the clavicle placement.

Finding a suitable model

I first looked at many websites for free 3D models that I could use for my rig and I found this one below on http://tf3dm.com/3d-models/characters/1/mb Unfortunately this model is not made up of nice quads but this was one of the best that I found as all of the models I found were made up of triangles. The only models I could find with nice topology were already rigged. The purpose of my rig will be for games, therefore I chose a model with a fairly low polycount.

I also looked on:

http://www.turbosquid.com/3d-model/character?keyword=&max_price=100&min_price=1

http://archive3d.net/

http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/60-excellent-free-3d-model-websites/

And a few other sites to no avail, however TF3DM proved to be the best site I could find for a free 3D model.