This post is mostly pertaining to rigging issues. I don't know how much y'all have played with Squeak yet, so please comment if you have anything it add, or if you have some workarounds for any of the problems I had.
First of all, great job on the Squeak rig so far, Erica. I know this is a work in progress, so I'd just like to share a few issues I ran into when messing around a bit. My main concerns were with the shoulders and the haunches.
When in a slightly crouched position his shoulders appear to be too low, positioned almost on the belly. I realize this is where the leg geometry actually meets the torso on the mesh that Beau and I provided, and it is probably difficult to work with. We were trying to give Squeaks chest some volume to make up for the lack of dynamic fur.
I think the problem is that there is an extra bone. I believe the circled joint above should be removed and combined into one bone perhaps, or maybe aligned like the twisting bones in the forearm.
Notice that in this position the shoulders seem appropriate, when the two bones I mention above are nearly straight. If they were combined they would look more or less like this no matter the orientation (minus the weight map adjustment).
My other concern is similar, but with the pelvis. When close to his neutral position, the hind legs look great and move realistically. However, approaching the sitting position some problems arise. It seems like the hip joint needs to be raised a bit, positioned more closely to what would be the anatomical hip joint (roughly where the move manipulator arrows are sitting above).
The problem is that it is impossible to get is butt any closer to the ground without the ankles or knees going crazy. I know this is an extreme position compared to Squeak's neutral stance, but I think it might be necessary for many of his poses and actions in the film.
Here's a more illustrative shot of what i'm talking about. The knees tend to buckle in and the bottoms of the feet are pretty stubborn about staying flat.
Anyways, I don't want to seem like I don't appreciate the rig, just wanted to point out a few bugs. I'm sure I have a lot to learn about character modelling. Everything else is moving great. I especially love the ears and cheeks!
I dunno, I kinda liked the curved look in the shoulder joint (I might be alone here). Although I admit the main reason that joint is there is because of how I modified the "default" quadruped skeleton. Adding joints in is a reasonably easy task, taking them out is somewhat more complicated. You can adjust the shoulder to some extent by moving the shoulder manipulator (the blue ovalish control) up and down (or side to side, or whatever).
ReplyDeleteAs for the pelvis...yeah. That one's a tough one. You can adjust the angle stifles (that top knee-like joint) buy swinging the pull vectors (the red crosses that pull on the hocks) around to the inside, and moving the hip manipulators (the blue ovalish things) around a bit. I managed to get a pretty decent sitting position this way.
I'm not a master at this, so it's not a perfect rig by far.