Rigging and Motion Capture
In this section we are going to start working with Rigging a character with bones. Please understand that in rigging there is easily:
Two different kinds of rigs.
1. A rigged character for Animators
2. A rigged character for Motion Capture
Each one of these rigs is diversely different. The rig for Motion capture is significantly easier at a foundational level. The rig for an Animator, for the most part, will always be more complex.
Rationale
The rig for Motion capture requires only a small hand full of controls. The basic bones will do just fine. The big reason why is because all of the controls for the rig are your body. The character will move however you move and the system captures that movement.
The rig for an Animator requires all of the controls built onto the character in Maya. These controls include FK (Forward Kinematics) and IK (Inverse Kinematics), Blend shapes and the controls to handle them, and many others.
We will start off building a VERY simplistic Animator Rig. this rig will not even come close to level on complexity needed to animate a character at a professional level. We will then progress to an Motion Capture rig. Once the Motion Capture rig is finished, we will proceed to do some motion capturing in the lab. Once the recommended captures have been recorded and edited, we will then apply them to a character in a video game engine (Unity).
Due to the time that we have allotted for class we will not be able to come back around and prepare a fully complex Animator rig.
Two different kinds of rigs.
1. A rigged character for Animators
2. A rigged character for Motion Capture
Each one of these rigs is diversely different. The rig for Motion capture is significantly easier at a foundational level. The rig for an Animator, for the most part, will always be more complex.
Rationale
The rig for Motion capture requires only a small hand full of controls. The basic bones will do just fine. The big reason why is because all of the controls for the rig are your body. The character will move however you move and the system captures that movement.
The rig for an Animator requires all of the controls built onto the character in Maya. These controls include FK (Forward Kinematics) and IK (Inverse Kinematics), Blend shapes and the controls to handle them, and many others.
We will start off building a VERY simplistic Animator Rig. this rig will not even come close to level on complexity needed to animate a character at a professional level. We will then progress to an Motion Capture rig. Once the Motion Capture rig is finished, we will proceed to do some motion capturing in the lab. Once the recommended captures have been recorded and edited, we will then apply them to a character in a video game engine (Unity).
Due to the time that we have allotted for class we will not be able to come back around and prepare a fully complex Animator rig.