Week Five: More Rigging, Less VisDev

The more insectoid design I came up with last week was fully embraced by the group (henceforth dubbed the 'Treetle'), so this past week I spent my time setting up a rough model and rig for the animators to have some fun with.

For reference, this was the design I came up with:

And this was the model and rig:

Right now, it's serving as a stand-in for the animators to get used to animating with it and giving me feedback of the things they want included. 

The rig has both a ribbon and FK spine so the animators can push it into whatever shape they want while still maintaining normal spine functionality. 

What I will be adding thanks to the animators' feedback: space switches on the claws and knee controls, more layers along the back, individual controls for each piece of shell, and a 'jostle' control that'll make all the shell pieces tremble randomly. The jostle control was recommended so the animators could convey weight with each step without needing to go in and key every single control.