So, I have to make a knitted character unravel, and I have no idea how to do so.

Jsy16

Hey, 
I'm the TD for my third year short film group and we are doing a story based around having knitted characters. 
In one point of the plot progression, one of the main character (who is knitted) starts to unravel. 

So basically I have to design a mesh and a rig that allows for the character to be animated normally and to be unraveled when the time calls for it. 

My current ideas are based around have the character made out of modular knitted geo pieces will have individual rig that will then be controlled by a "normal" character rig. 
The knitting unravel rig will use joints controlled by either an curve or a ribbon which will be controlled by another set of joints that will allow for the "knitted" mesh to be molded into the shape of the character.

To be honest, I'm kinda stumped on whether this is the right way to go about making this rig. 
I am definitely open to ideas and suggestions. 

I will continue to update the thread as I make progress.   

jStins

It sounds like this is for a pre-rendered animated short, rather than a game so... take advantage of that! Story board the hell out of this sequence before you create a highly complicated 'do-everything' rig. Think about shot economy and the most efficient way to visually communicate that this character is unraveling. Camera cuts can be a HUGE advantage since they can allow you to swap out rigs and / or create / add effects in post. 

An old mentor of mine used this scene from Terminator 2 as a good example of this:

https://youtu.be/MT_u9Rurrqg?t=1m20s

The viewer sees a metal spike transforming into a human arm, then a human changing shape, but this sequence is mainly prosthetics with a couple short CGI sequences. Obviously the film makers on T2 were dealing with a lot of constraints, but you can use the same concepts of shot economy in any animation. Maybe you don't need a crazy rig that can unravel, but just a couple of close ups of the unraveling, then a wide shot showing the fully unraveled character.  At that point your problem is more narrowly defined and easier to solve. 

Sorry I don't have a technical answer to your question, but this definitely seems like something where thorough pre-production can save a lot of headache in the long run. 

Eric Chadwick

Depends how close the camera is to the effect. 

Do you have a storyboard, or better yet an animatic? This will help you plan each shot, basically what you can get away with!

I would try to not do it as a physically accurate effect. Rather, fake the fuck out of it. Progressively hide the sweater using an animated texture or animated uv, and move the end of the yarn to match it.

Jsy16

Firstly, thanks for the comments. 
Yeah its a pre-rendered film, I'll definitely try to use the camera to my advantage.
I'll get our storyboard artist to go in depth with the scene so I know exactly how its gonna play out, so I can build the rig around that. 
From our current storyboards, its like a mid shot for the unraveling scene, so it's going to pretty close. Cheating it may be a bit hard, with a shot that close up, but it should clear up when I get the detailed storyboards. 
 

Here's a quick proof of concept of what our wool is going to look like, just encase that helps with the visualization of the rig/character.   
I'm going to make a ball of yarn rig to test some options on, I'll post it as soon as it's up and running. 

Thanks for the comments so far.