Though last year I was only on the course for a short amount of time. I found myself taking on a lot of information. As I've spent the last week researching I’d go as far as to say that in that short time I’ve taken on the same, if not more information than I did in those last few months. Is this a point for concern however? Is it a reflection of my motivation to the work and project? That’s subjective. What it does say however is that I’ve already surpassed my expectation and limits that I had before now. This is a sign of development and personal growth that I welcome with wide arms. Of course though, this needs to continue for here on out.
With that said, the last week has allowed me to really hone in on what I need to be doing. What goals I need to set myself and what standard of work I should be aiming to produce. Initially, as a group we discussed the rigging and animation and talked about just using a standard human IK rig from within Maya. Though this, and other methods such as downloaded a simple rig and model or even generating one from a program such as Make Human would be quick. The question I had to ask myself was ‘What would I learn?’. Next was the matter of putting such content in my portfolio. What would it say about myself and my ability to work? I agreed with the group that if all else fails, we should use one of these methods as a placeholder and if needed, the animations could be transfers over. But to what degree would this be a success against causing more trouble in the long run? At this stage it is a fair guess that could be made by anyone. The conclusion to this however following my research was that I would set out on building a custom rig for this project.
Building a custom rig is, from an outside view, a daunting task and though this was my initial feeling I quickly adjusted to the idea. hat helped me support this option along with advising to the group it was best was down to four key points. The first, was the educational value that I would get out of the process of building a custom rig. Being able to understand how the rig is constructed would benefit me considerably on many levels. The second was the level of control it would offer me from an animation standard. The standard human IK rigs and other rigs I researched failed to meet my expectation as to how they would preform. Though applying additional controls onto these rigs was possible I considered this was not a beneficial use of my time. Therefore, building controls from the ground up would allow me more flexibility, understanding and overall result with the rig. Next was in regards to the skinning, weighting and deformation of the model itself. The standard of animation I’m aiming to produce require a robust and reliable rig with as close to real deformation as possible. Finally, I wanted a rig that would be multipurpose, reusable and ultimately, mine.
As I planned to do a series of extra animations, if time allowed, for Game 15 along with some unrelated ones for my portfolio. I concluded that a custom rig would save me time in the long run as it could be re-purposed for other uses. One such use included removing all but the arms and creating some first person animations. Of course, I’ll need to model a gun first. However in summary the group and I meet at a happy resolve as to what the rig would be and what it would be required to do.
The next task over the coming week will be to finalise what tutorial I’ll follow in order to create the rig. Discussions in regards to what animations we are hoping to have for the prototype will be something I need to finalise as well. Lastly, I aim to begin work on a prototype rig and model to allow me to work on for the meantime until the player character model is ready. Currently I've felt a little bit out of touch with the development of Game 15 but now I feel that this is no longer an issue. I can begin work on the rig now and then have time to work on particle effects and environments shortly after. As some might say, it is time to ‘level up’.
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