Autodesk Maya: Rigging

So for the past week I've taken a break from making games, playing games and overall being social. I focused primarily on rigging. I've learned A LOT since I started. I know how to set up constraints, set-up IKs, set controls, restrictions, paint weights, and a proper way to compose a skeleton, etc.

I took a break from rigging my monster and started rigging my friend's because, yes I'm a cheater, his was already weight painted. It's undoubtedly the most important thing in rigging, but I don't really like it. It takes patience and a lot of troubleshooting, which I did not want to do just so that I can cram other techniques into this study session. Here's a shot from his rig setup mid-walk animation.

The model has 2 Foot IKs to act as a goat's leg and keep it from messing up and the hands have full finger controls!

This was my first full on rig and although it has some issues, I learned a lot from it and will now go on to rig MY monster, Tank. Not too soon, I think it's time to rest and play some games at least until the new year hits :D

ZBrush SNHU Final

With school finally done this semester I have free time to work on learning new stuff, freelancing and play some games! Steam winter sale wooo!!! Anyway, I'm learning rigging this holiday season thanks to free time and some help from a friend. Before I go on about what I'm learning here's a picture of my Zbrush final.

His name is Tank and he is a  high poly render. The game model version is just under 20k polys

Out with the old, in with the new. I'm teaching myself rigging and animation in Autodesk Maya. Why not? Sounds like a lot of fun and it's not everyday I hear someone picking up rigging. So far I've learned the inverse toe setup. If you've never heard of it, look it up. It's phenomenal and ingenious!

SNHU Finals Week / Zbrush Project

With the finals week right around the corner, I've been mad busy. Assuming no one is ever going to care : [
The flash game my buddy and I have been working on is almost "complete" with the necessary gameplay stripping that would allow the game to have a definite end. We decided to call it "Zeruda: The Game" for obvious reasons. In a couple of weeks or so we will  release to the public, but the game is nowhere near acceptable industry standards. We will not work on it, rather we will just upload it as it is.

Anyway, I have also been working on my final project for Zbrush class. We had to draw orthographic views of our monsters and then put them in Zbrush and start modeling. We are given more or less 3 weeks to complete it which sounds like a lot of time, but it really isn't. Here's how much I've done!

Here's how much better his back got in just one day...maybe like 2-3 hours of work.

Yeah those arms are much better too! They used to be just blobby, but after a few hours I was able to shape them up pretty well. I plan to texture and pose this as a game model in UDK for my portfolio. All that will be done these 2 weeks...lots to do!