Wentelteffje Animations for Team Escherreal

During the production of Grapple, team Escherreal needed a bit of help, so I volunteered to help them out with animation so they didn't have to cut this guy from the game.  I animated the creature with an insect-like tripedal gait.  I thought it made the most sense with the 6 legs, even though it has human feet.

This is Wentelteffe, or "French Toast", a rolling bug-like creature based off of M. C. Escher's, by the same name.  The character was modeled and textured by Miguel Espinoza, and rigged by Caitlyn Trout (with some tweaks by me).

Aiming Pole Vector Controls at Joints

I was adding pole vectors onto knees for a rig I'm currently animating to, and I was using aim constraints to get the curves to point towards the knees (since the knees are not pointing down any one axis).  Then I had the idea: why not leave the aim constraints on?  The pole vector curve will always point towards the joint, so no more losing similar-looking curves in a tangled mess of a bent-over-rig.

 You can also lock out the rotation, and hide them, if you choose, which will stop the animator from keying it, but not restrict the constraints from changing the values.  Perfect for this application.  It's got all of the benefits from drawing a curve between the PV to the joint, but less of the visual clutter (heck, you could even do both).

Safe from we animators, for another day.