Animation - Computer Generated

The first thing I've decided to do is find a rig I feel would be suitable for my current idea and then develop this rig further to make a more personal character.

I chose to use "Moom" of the 11 Second Club.

When I first opened the rig, I need to play around with various parts of the skeleton and controllers to make certain options become available. For example, in the image above the controllers for the right arm can be seen (red rings) but the left arm was missing. To fix this issue I needed to select the left hand set of controllers and change the arm from the IK switch to the FK switch. I've since realised that the IK controls were giving me much more accurate results while animating.

The next step was to make the character less vulnerable, by adding clothing. Having done this previously a Max rig, I found it quite simple and easy to do.

Although he now has a distinct change to his visual looks, I also wanted to go ahead and start adding a few details, perhaps turn-ups on his trousers, a belt, and even a wrist watch.

So far, I have managed to add a belt and turn-ups. The watch will wait until I edit the character again.

Simon showed me a way to parent the clothing items to the joints hidden within the rig, so that once the character is animated, the clothing will move at the same time. Hopefully I've done this correctly.

The image above shows the joints and how the turn-ups interact when they're moved. They do infact move with the joints, but they remain level throughout, meaning that during animation they will require fine tuning to create a smoother transition of objects and characters.

The next thing I did was begin working on a set design and a story board to use as a first draft.

I wanter the area to remain quite bare so as to create most of the focus on the characters, and I planned on using hard spotlights which would tone out most of the surroundings.