Week 09 – Rigging & Render Tests. Facial Expressions.
on June 23, 2006 at 1:33 amWow! It’s 9 weeks in and almost 1 month after my last decent “Wait, Mister!” update! Where has the time gone eh? Anyways, so I’ve finished rigging up both Mr. Knox and Kid, and straight after managed to quickly come up with some possible poses they might adopt to flush out any major kinks in the rigs. So far so good. As far as I can tell there’s nothing I can’t fix within specific shots if need be. I’m banking on that being faster than my struggling to get the absolute perfect rig from the outset. Unfortunately, I haven’t had the time to get into walk cycles or more detailed character studies. It’s definitely something worth working on at a later date (likely post-submission). And don’t get me started on the cloth tests! Alright enough of that, here’s a quick sample of what I did.
Download Mr. Knox and Kid rig test.
I’ve also fiddled around with Final Gathering for a bit just to see how the characters might possibly look in their environment. You might notice some more colours on Knox and Kid but still no textures on anything else. At this stage, I must admit to still toying with ideas for the exact look and amount of details in the background, but I’m definitely keeping it simple for the best effect. The lighting is also not entirely finalised but at least it’s a decent start right?
As you can see, there’s still a ton of work to be done!
I’ve also managed to set up the basic necessary face shapes for Mr. Knox. Here are a few choice expressions:
I’m presently working on Kid’s face shapes. Initially I thought Kid would have less facial expressions with Knox being on camera more, but I’ve realised he’s much more expressive and requires a few additional face shapes. Regardless, I really hope to finish them by the end of the week. After that I’ll finally tackle modeling the environment and all props, as well as completing all the textures. That should take me through the short 2-week break (what break?) at least. If I stick to the plan, I should be focusing entirely on animating the shots once the final term begins. I’ve also gotten a sound designer on board so that’s another item settled. I’ll have to find someone to be the voice of Knox though. I’d have liked to get some visual references during the recordings too if possible. I doubt I’ll have a problem casting Kid. It’ll most likely be my son Adib doing his voice. And with two young boys running around, I don’t think I’ll have a problem with visual references!
