Character Modelling & Rigging

Since my last post I've spent most of my time working Pandora and also looking more into rigging.

One of my friends from class recommended I use MAX's CAT system to rig my main character, which he'd recently been experimenting with for his models. So after spending an hour or so with him one morning checking it out I decided it was the best thing to use. You can build a highly customisable rig, shape the bones to suit your mesh, animate on layers and switch between IK and FK. Beats the hell out of biped and bones. Well done Autodesk!

So I came home, deleted the original bone rig I'd created for my creature and made a new one with the CAT system to experiment. I skinned and tested it too and it seems to work just fine! Should make animating a lot easier too with the layers.

I then moved back onto working on the Pandora model. This is the first time I've modelled a full human character in quite awhile so I didn't get it done as fast as I'd hoped but I think I did a pretty good job in the end.

Got some feedback on it too and was told the topology was sound, especially in the face. Awesome!

After making some slight adjustments to the final model, I've spent the last few days building and shaping the rig, which you can see below:

 

The rig actually looks like the character now after some editing which I think is cooool. I've also found today that this makes the skinning process a lot easier! I've also unwrapped the model, currently I've just applied some simple colours to match my concepts, not too concerned with that at the moment and this evening I've been skinning her. So far so good! I also got told it looks like my drawings :D which means I haven't done a bad job!

I'm attempting something new with project too by making a facial rig. Previously, I've created characters with some facial expressions using morph targets, and I've used other rigs with a facial set up but I've never attempted building my own.I added an extra bone to the head when I was building the rig for the Jaw, and so far I've skinned it to work.

My next plan is to create my morph targets then create a control system for the face with Reaction Manager so I don't have to keep going into Morpher and rotating the jaw bone. Never tried this before so I hope it goes as smoothly as possible.

I also need to texture her eyes... she looks pretty freaky with them being all white!