Digital Creature Rigging

Wings, Tails & Tentacles for Animation & VFX

Stewart Jones

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9781138560703
• eBook ISBN: 9781351360449
• Topic: Computer Science
• Subtopic: Computer Science General
• Index: Computer Science

In a follow-up book, which re-iterates the principles of "Digital Creature Rigging: The Art & Science of CG Creature Setup in 3ds Max", and enhances their relativity with advanced wing, tail and tentacle setups. This book will discuss advanced rigging techniques in 3ds Max, while readers create a fish, octopus and a Game of Thrones style dragon!

Key Features

This is the next step in CG creature setups in 3ds Max.

Although 3ds Max specific, the techniques and foundations will work for any 3D application.

By following the step-by-step guides in this book, you can finish and complete a portfolioready.

Each chapter will include an introduction and a summary, giving significance to the start and end of each chapter where our readers can rest!

This book includes a companion website where chapter supplements and core files and documents could be easily accessed.

1

Introduction

Rigging in 3ds Max, Maya, Houdini, Blender or any other 3D software is all the same – a series of hierarchies with specific controllers to manipulate its specific elements.

Stewart Jones

The world of computer graphics (CG), 3D, animation and visual effects (VFX) is changing as rapidly as ever. Advances in technology, new software and state-of-the-art hardware allow for continuously improving final images, either static or moving, in print, onscreen and even in various realities like virtual and augmented reality. Finished projects and productions can look more incredible, feel more believable, and distort our view on what’s real and what is fake. It’s an exciting time to be part of this field, but what is surprising is that the core fundamentals, the true basics of CG, haven’t changed one bit. For me, this is both very disappointing and somewhat concerning.

When Digital Creature Rigging: The Art and Science of CG Creature Setup in 3D was first published, way back in 2012, the foundations of rigging in three dimensions hadn’t really changed for a long time. Sure, there were some new tools and new techniques added to the software, things like dual-quaternion skinning, which was a relatively new development, and Python was quickly taking over as the main scripting language used in productions, amongst others. But, at the very root of everything, rigging in 3D was still just the same.

Need a biped character? Rig it! Inverse kinematics (IK), forward kinematics (FK), joints/bones, and reverse foot setups – it was and still is the same. Animation studios, VFX studios, they’re all using similar setups for similar characters. Yet these frameworks are either custom-scripted auto-riggers or built manually, but they all behave similarly. Of course, some productions are using out-of-the-box auto-riggers like Biped or CAT, which are built into Autodesk 3ds Max, but they can feel more limited than custom creations. This often forces character/creature technical directors (TDs) and riggers to create their own systems. Heck, I even have my own scripted system for these things, as I mentioned earlier!

What I’m trying to say is that once you’ve learnt the basics, it’s really all the same. At least, it is until you’re asked to work on an octopus that can walk on land. Or a bird that has to open and close its wings onscreen with realistic feathers. Okay, now we are talking about some exciting challenges that are going to require some very unique setups.

Wings, tails and tentacles; some of the most problematic areas of creature setup that provide challenges to even those most experienced with rigging and setups in 3D. Those things, along with shoulders, of course! These problems, otherwise known as challenges, need to be solved in such a way that our control mechanisms are simple, logical and easy to use for an animation team. This is easier said than done, as some of these kinds of rigs are tricky and complicated to implement. But, this book is here to help out, so no worries.

As you work your way through this book, you’ll be digging into techniques that aren’t often covered in rigging tutorials. We are building on the foundations set out in the first Digital Rigging book (Jones, 2012), which means that we can rush through the basics of setting up creatures and really dive in and explore the more advanced and complex topics.

Our first challenge is a watery squid creature! Its tentacles and jellylike body are going to cause us squishy, squashy, stretchy, moldable troubles. Then we move onto a mythical dragon, which makes us focus on wing setups that need to move and deform realistically, giving us another challenging rigging task.

Like the first book, we are once again sticking with Autodesk 3ds Max to create the rigs for these creatures. As such, we cover techniques specific to this software. And, just as ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Author
• Contributor
• 1. Introduction
• 2. The Creatures
• 3. Rigging Preparation
• 4. Pheridan: Base Rig
• 5. Pheridan: Animation Rig
• 6. Pheridan: Deformation Rig
• 7. Xilteor: Base Rig
• 8. Xilteor: Animation Rig
• 9. Xilteor: Deformation Rig
• 10. Conclusion
• Index