Coursework Beginnings

For my coursework this year I'm planning to create a character rig for a model. I'd really like to be able to create a tool as well, but I think I'll do that as a side project.

I really want to create an interesting character rig - I didn't want to just do a simple human or animal, and I want to make my rig for games meaning I can't use blend shapes and keep the joint count down at the same time.
I've been looking to try find a suitable model online while still practicing techniques I'd use for my rig on the Kydd rig given to us. Lizard from The Amazing Spiderman was the kind of character I was trying to find, as not only did it have a human like skeleton, but also had a tail which I could add a spline IK onto. Finding a suitable mesh however is proving difficult, and I've been looking into other options such as Killer Croc from Batman which could add interesting points with joints for the chains hanging off him so they interact with his wrists, neck etc.


I'd like to decide on my model by next week so I can start transferring what I've learned and implemented on the Kydd Rig onto my own rig for coursework.

In terms of a tool, I had thought of creating a tool to go along with my rig which would allow game animators to easily input different animations. A sort of pose tool, but for instance when a button is clicked it wouldn't pose the character but run a clip of them moving which could then be used elsewhere. I'd like to further investigate the Trax editor in Maya by the end of this week as well.