WIP Modeller Trying to Rig

Greg Westphal

I've been modelling for a while but I haven't given rigging a shot as most of the people I work with would rather do that. I decided that because I'm not sure what rigging entails I should give it a whirl to see if my topology could improve because of it. I'm building a full human body when I have time (mostly working on static props and scenery right now) and I was wondering if I could get some feedback.

I'll keep updating the overall progress in the first post but if someone has any questions about specific parts please ask and I'll post more detailed photos.

Mark Dygert

Rigging: Creating the skeleton and the systems that help power animation, IK/FK blending, control objects, driving complex combinations of bone interactions like twist bones, setting up bones in the face to follow the helpers that animators interact with, creating dynamic solutions for secondary motion like ammo pouches, capes, hair ect... Wiring morph targets to a control board bla bla bla...
So a lot of complex technical know how to make animation possible and very little of it has much to do with skin weights or deformation.

Skinning: Assigning vertex weights to the skinning skeleton.

It seems like you want to focuses a little less on rigging and more on topology and deformation? But that depends largely on how you plan to rig it it up and how well you can assign skin weights.

What program are you using, what kind of animation do you want it to do and how do you plan to rig it up? That will mostly determine how the topology of the face needs to go.
Are you going to use morph targets or bones?
Are you looking to get a last gen performance out of the face, or looking to get film quality?

Greg Westphal

I was planning on morph targets on the face and bones throughout the rest of the body. As my first time rigging though what would you suggest? I plan on trying to get a little bit of functionality out of the body animations in Unity and also trying to do a short film with my expressions. I tend to want to keep it on the more realistic side and I'm not afraid of trying to do one set as morph targets and the other as bones.