NEXT-GEN Nescot week 6 - Rigging

During week six at Nescot we were introduced to the process of Rigging (Skeletal animation) in which a charater is moved with a skeleton or rig that has linked joints to the mesh, this is used to animate and pose. Therefore we were tasked with posing the mesh in two stances, we did this by first getting given a pre-set model which we used to create poses by changing the positions and rotations of areas of the skeletal rig set to contract and be altered.

An example of this can be shown during the creation of my first rig which was positioned to appear as a flying kick. I did this by firstly getting the imported model into Maya and began to move the arms and legs out to the sides to make it easier to see the positions I would have to put them in, then I contracted the left knee of the character and moved the position and rotation of the foot to match this change. I also rotated the head to appear as if it is looking in the direction of the way they are moving/ attacking.

Next, I began to change the rotation of the joints in the hands to create a realistic-looking clenched fists before then rotating the position of the left elbow, to change the position of the hand. Also, I changed the rotation of the right foot to make it more stretched out as well as straightening the right arm too.

Finally, I decided to pose the left knee so that it appeared more outward-facing to improve the appearance from multiple angles and give the image more of a eye catching look.

I believe that my first rig is very good but is not my favourite of the two because I was mainly experimenting and didn't add as much detail into it as I did with my second rig.

For my second rig I decided to a pose that was inspired by Spiderman and other superheroes, this is because it is used often to show a hero after they have landed (this is mostly used by Marvel heroes).


I did this by, once again, importing the model to Maya and then moving the mesh into a lower position before then re-arranging the arms to be straighter and then moving the positions and rotations of both feet (the left being much more pointed and outward facing with the right being flatter). Then I moved and rotated the knees into better positions to make the legs correctly placed.


After this I lowered the middle of the body by rotating and moving the rig. Once I had done that I re-positioned the arms and head using rotation before editing the fingers to appear as if they were being lent on.

I believe my second rig is better than my first rig, but if I could change anything, then I would add more smaller details such as changing the hair slightly and adding more detail to the feet and hands.