Pushing Points

New Book Reviews

William — Fri, 17 May 2013 14:24:34 +0000

It’s been awhile since I last checked the reviews for my book, [digital] Modeling over at Amazon and I was happy to see some new reviews popped up.

I’m even happier that people continue to enjoy the book. You can check out the reviews here: Amazon Reviews

OoO Character Rig R&D

William — Wed, 15 May 2013 05:29:26 +0000

Having worked on the Modo 701 Cartoon Truck Rig, I was itching to create my first OoO Full Character rig.

This character takes advantage of the Order of Operation (OoO) ability of Modo when working with Deformers, as well as the use of Weight Containers instead of Weightmaps.

Weight Containers are becoming a favorite feature that I’m extremely excited about. I also wanted to avoid the use of Morph Targets/ Blend Shapes and create a face rig that would allow for a lot of flexibility. I’ve been having a blast testing the facial controls. I created this character with Crazy bulging eyes as a challenge to get clean eyelid rigs that would deform properly when closing… I’m pretty happy with how it works.

I’m excited to keep moving on this character test to start working with the features found in the Actors & Sets Tab…. lots to explore.

Click here to watch a quick test of me exploring the various controls of the character rig: OoO Character Rig Work in Progress Test

Join the discussion about the rig over on the Modo forums: OoO Rig Thread

Truck Rig WIP02

William — Thu, 09 May 2013 21:45:51 +0000

I’ve been putting the finishing touches on the Modo 701 Truck Rig and have added the Engine.

It’s powered by Hemi… Not a HEMI, but a gerbil named Hemi The belt and gears are powered by this little fellow and you can see it animated over at the Modo forums. You can follow the progress here on pushingpoints or over at the Modo forums here: Cartoon Truck Rig Thread

More Updates to follow.

Truck Rig WIP01

William — Wed, 08 May 2013 04:06:43 +0000

I’ve been diving into rigging in Modo 701 and absolutely loving it. I wanted to share a work in progress rig that I started that takes advantage of many of the new modifiers and other features introduced in 701.

Here is an image of the object I’m rigging.

It’s a simple cartoon truck that I gave myself a list of requirements that I wanted in the rig. One of the main requirements of the rig is that the vehicle drive itself. In the video below, all animation is automated and there are ZERO keyframes. I’ve also added user channels to customize the animation and some of the options include tire shape, whether the tire compresses on the ground or not, and a slew of fun options for tire and chassis placement.

One of the more subtle bits of the rig happens to be my favorite. When the truck accelerates, the hood ornament gets a little scared. Here is an image showing hood ornament in action:

You can watch a short test run of the rig in action by clicking the here: Modo 701 Truck Rig WIP01

I’ve separated the Frame from the Truck Chassis so that it would be easy to drop any number of alternate cars on top and have them up and running in minutes.

I’ll post updates soon. Enjoy!

Another Modcast Mention

William — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 22:21:35 +0000

I was happily surprised to get another plug in the latest Modcast for some of the recent posts on pushingpoints. Much appreciated. Click here to listen to the latest Modcast: Overseas Bradcast

JoyStick Facial Rig R&D_001

William — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 02:51:23 +0000

The other day I created a simple Joystick control that I shared here on the site. The idea was to develop animation joystick controls to be used in all sorts of rigs, but primarily character facial rigs.

I dusted off the old Ivan model that I box modeled in Modo years ago and created some quick and dirty morph targets for testing. This is an early test but I’m excited about what this will lead to. Exciting times!

Click here to see the facial rig in action: JoyStick Facial Rig r&D_001

Iris Door Rig

William — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 19:28:45 +0000

I’ve had to rig and animate iris doors several times over the years and the first couple times I attempted it proved to be quite a challenge. It turns out to be a trivial task when you break it down but isn’t that how it always works? While exploring rigging in Modo, I created this simple Iris Door Rig that is animated by one rotational channel.

This is a good example of the power of Relationship Channel Links inside of Modo. Simply scrub the “Iris_open” channel in the negative to animate the iris door open and back down to zero to close it.

Click on the image below to access the source file to see the setup.

Alternate Reverse Foot Rig

William — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 18:08:07 +0000

Eleven years ago I developed a simple reverse foot rig that is easy to setup. It’s an alternate setup to how most artists rig feet and I have used for the majority of the productions I have worked on. You can watch an old video tutorial for how I set this rig up in LightWave below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Skw54UXwivU

I’m digging into rigging in Modo and wanted to give my reverse foot rig setup a go. It’s the same setup as in the video above but also includes a knee pointer for added control. You can download the source file by clicking on the image below:

Joystick Position Limits

William — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 21:04:13 +0000

I’m in the early stages of exploring facial rigging in Modo and wanted to setup a basic joystick controller. The first step was creating the joystick with defined position limits that would keep the joystick within the confines of the box frame.

So far this is what I’ve come up with. I’m still looking into other options but this seems to do the trick.

Click on the image below to download the source file.

I’d be interested in hearing any other options for accomplishing the same setup.

Enjoy!

Kurt’s Latest Rig

William — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 22:48:03 +0000

Kurt Smith recently posted a new rigging reel that is most impressive. Kurt is one of the top LightWave rigging artists I know, and keeps one-upping himself with each new rig. Be sure to check out his latest rig of a character I modeled based on a design by Carlos Negron.

You can view the reel here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FJMr8M3X4M