Skeleton

Details:

Rig name (Armature) = Skeleton

All objects, bones, pose actions, camera actions and constraints are named appropriately.

Any un-named actions should be ignored and have no key frames.

• Rig created by me following rigging tutorial by David Ward
• Finger controllers can be scaled and rotated to bend finger using the hand constraints (actions).
• Lip and Eye constraints/controllers can be moved together or separately up down left and right to move lips and eyes around in order to pull different facial expressions.
• Move and rotate foot and leg using the IK_Foot bone.
• Move and rotate hand and arm using the IK_Hand bone.
• Look at bone is used to move eyes, eyes and mesh around the eyes follow the look at bone.
• The is an Action named "NORMAL" which is keyed to the standard stance so it is possible to always return to it.

In week three is when we first discussed about rigging (making a skeleton), we were told it was fine to use the pre-loaded bi-ped that is already in 3D max, but I chose to create my own, because I wanted to learn every stage of 3D character modelling and I could plan and design how my character would mover properly. The most important thing about making a skeleton is the parenting, which was discussed in the third week lecture and was apparent in the tutorials I followed, this is so when you move a hand for example to a new location the arm will follow and the head will move with the body and things like that, it makes the animation a lot easier and helps make movements look more realistic.

IK and controller bones are useful so you can move things in different ways, for example with the foot, you can lift the foot and the whole leg, or just tap the foot at the back or the front.