Class:
PIE 1 Art- Animation

Assignment:
Create/Complete a set of controllers for the model we’ve been using in previous assignments. Movement of the model should be driven only from the controllers, NOT the joints. The rig should include forward kinematic controllers for everything but the legs which should be inverse kinematic controllers.

Take data from one of our motion capture shoots and bring it into Motion Builder. Apply one or more of the mocap motions to our model (in Motion Builder).

Create a MEL autorigging script that takes an .fbx exported from Motion Builder and applies our rig to it. The script should also remove keyframes from the joints of the .fbx and instead apply the keyframes to the rig’s controllers. This will allow the imported data to be driven solely by the controllers.

Description:
The video (Maya playblast) is just part of this assignment. At this point, my autorigging script was not complete, so that’s why there aren’t any controllers in the video. What this video DOES show is the Ganondorf model I’d been using applied to a mocap take. I applied the motion to the model in Motion Builder, and this video shows the result once I imported the skeleton and model back into Maya. Note that this is before any modifications from me. This is just the unedited data from the mocap shoot.

The images document the rig section of this assignment.  The circles and arrows are FK controls, the boxes by the feet are IK controls, the L and R in front of the knees are pole vector controls, and the arrow in the back moves the entire model as a whole.

Fun fact: I was the actor for the mocap shoot 😀