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Thursday, June 27, 2013

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.

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Good Ol' Ball Bounce

I wanted to go back and hit on the basics, so I've been doing some simple ball bounces.  I want to work on weight more, as I've been having trouble with animating weight on the heavy Grapple enemies.  Each of these were pretty quick, and as expected, each came quicker than the last.  It's funny because I immediately noticed myself using these principles in a different animation afterwards.

My first four exercises were a stationary and moving bounce, one affected by gravity, and one not.  (Suggested by user Slipsius on Polycount.)  I also threw in some experimentation with different masses, for good measure.  The first four are based off of a basketball.  The next two are bowling balls to get the feeling of a different mass.


Thanks to Saul Garcia for making his ball rig available on Creative Crash.

Thursday, June 13, 2013

Nassa Color Schemes

As I'm moving towards texturing my character, I painted up a bunch of options for color schemes.  I'm exploring the first two further.  While I really like the colors of the third and fifth, neither fit the character as well, and character comes first.


The next step was some variations on the chosen color.  The second one ended up being the favorite.


Monday, June 10, 2013

Grapple - Amina Enemy Takedown

Here is a shot I've been working on for Grapple.  Amina, the protagonist of the game, is equipped with a grappling hook that she can use to grab onto buildings and enemies.  When grappling an enemy from the back, she goes into a takedown animation.