May 28, 2017 : Rig Improvements – Shoulder Tapering
With every new project, I try to improve my production pipeline. This includes updating my characters’ rig. This time around, I made several improvements. One alteration I have used extensively has been with the shoulders.
For a while now, my characters have had separated arms – meaning they are not connected to the torso. I did this for a few reasons. Visually, I like the cartoon look it creates. But I also like the flexibility it provides while animating – shoulder deformations can be very difficult (and limiting).
The downside to this feature has been the cylindrical looking shoulders, which often gave the character a more ‘guarded’ or ‘on-edge’ look:
With the current project, I created a morph that tapered the shoulders to give them a more slanted look as the arms proceeded upward:
I created a morph rather than adjusting the model directly because I wanted the flexibility of turning the tapering on and off depending on the angle of the character relative to the camera (not to mention anything in between).
The change was pretty minor, but I really like the resulting ascetic. There are a few other changes made to the rig, and I hope to cover those in future posts.
posted by Pi Visuals at 2:55 am
Tags: Ad Wizards