Thursday 26 January 2012

Bird Rig: Current WIP

Geraint Wright asked if I could build a quick rig for a sparrow animation (model would be supplied).

This is where it is atm. (still alot of work to go into it) but alot of the base ideas are there.


The separation of the feathers was far simpler than I though actually, using a couple of curves and the very useful pointOnCurveInfo nodes (same nodes used in motionpaths but without the extra crap), then just a basic heirachy of dependencies of controllers and aim constraints (the feather bending is hideous but was only quickly thrown together, needs more thought behind it so expect that to change).
One issue (kinda solved, looking into better solutions) was due to the aim constraint, feathers wouldn't react accordingly to folding or certain positions, especially when pulled about a fair bit. Simple solution was to declare the aims up object as another controller (well, one for each segment).
Alot of automation (of course each with manual overrides and on/off blending) will be needed to get a smoother transition and to 'hide' any smaller issues, included with a smart system to fold the wing (some scripting required).
The animation it'll be used in you wont really see much of the detail but I'd rather put the work in now if any shots/ideas for closer cuts are thrown in...

References:
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=7&t=836433&highlight=wing
http://www.brendanbody.co.uk/flight_tutorial/index.html

11 comments:

  1. Hey there Lee. Was checking out your blog at tech-artist.org's Planet RSS feed and was surprised to find that post! The thread you linked to was actually started by me just over 3 years ago now and it's definitely weird to see it pop up!

    Your rig is obviously a lot better than mine as I was completely new to rigging back then. Just thought I'd pop in with a comment to say nice work and it is definitely weird to see my old thread rear it's very ugly head. Haha :D

    I wanna see how this progresses. There is a REALLY nice automated bird rig on youtube that always impressed me, and it would be brilliant to look into how they did the folding. They also wrote a really nice script to populate the feathers.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jUKOMGKfOM

    Anyway, good luck! :)

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  2. Hey Sophie, yeah that thread really helped with a few ideas, I'm always surprised to find how much more useful older threads seem to be! lol
    Cheers! It still has a long way to go, ideally I'd strip it and have a rethink to lessen the controls and get some more multi-functionality in there, but I don't think I have the time.
    Yeah I think I saw that a while back, but not whilst I've been working on this... Its pretty awesome actually, I think alot of driven keys and corrective blends for the fold, which I've started playing with, but the feathers are really cool, make mine look more like a bald sparrow lol.
    Cheers Sophie!

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  3. you guys still having trouble with that one or is it a new one lol?

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  4. Nah it never got a full working rig, sadly Mehnaz couldn't get the wings working right. I've finished at Dinamo now. If you want to take a look at it I've got all the files though.

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  5. Ah I didnt know Mehnaz was on it
    Yeah go on then, I might find something useful :)
    Cheers Rhodri

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  6. The sparrow is starting to look like a nice rig Lee, I've been looking for a good bird rig (not a duck Rhodri). Any chance you're willing to share this one when it's done, or is it for something specific?

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  7. I dunno yet, few guys from work keep naggin me for it, but its up to Gez really, his choice.
    I'll have an ask.

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  8. Hello Lee! I looked at the end-result for the Sparrow and it looks really nice, it was animated well too! I'm just wondering if I could try some tests with it? I'm a fairly recent grad and I'm trying to build my reel up with some creature work and this would be perfect! I would reference your name in the DRB of the reel for sure!

    Thanks!!

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  9. is the birg rig gonna be shared publicly ?

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