Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 1.6
The rendered character
and forward in the production process. It is informed by the themes of the story but bows to the require-
ments of animation, and later, to the minimization of render times.
At this point, the modeling of the lead character can be fi nished,
but as long as you organize your project properly and use the
correct tools, things don't need to be completely fi nalized before
animation begins. Unlike creating still images, surfacing (materi-
als and texturing) can be skipped almost entirely at this stage.
With a good start on your characters, you set up your control
rigs. This is the fi rst place that good storyboarding pays off. You
build and test your rigs to the specifi c actions your characters
will take. It could be that one character never gets out of his or
her seat—you can skip IK leg controls. It could be that another
character's face is never really seen—you can skip facial anima-
tion controls. By looking at who does what in your storyboards,
you can decide what sort of controls each character is going to
need. Of course, you could spend several months creating a bril-
liant all-purpose rig for each and every character, but it would
only be a waste of time, both now and later when the calcula-
tion of each and every bone takes its toll on rendering times.
Figure 1.7
A control rig and mesh for a character
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