Technical Character Setup was my focus of study at the Savannah College of Art and Design. I’ve been developing my skills as a technical artist for some time now but recently, through the exploration of Python and other various deformer based influences, I’ve been able to push them even further.
Pippit
Pippit's rig was created for Amanda Clark's senior film Muse based on Pippit's original character designs by Jennifer Mei. The film was scrapped due to production complications and Pippit was used to create Pippit's purpose instead. Pippit’s purpose was completed in November of 2013. For more on the development of this character click here.
Kealeena
I developed Kealeena for SCAD’s Advanced Character Setup and Facial Setup and Animation classes. I really enjoyed this process as the challenge forced me to use some out of the box thinking and gave me an opportunity to develop techniques for importing and exporting skin weight maps, deformation influences, as well as a developing a complex blendshape pipeline. For more on the development of this character click here.
The Beast
The beast is one of the main characters in my senior thesis film Hunted. He is a massive gorilla-like creature that has the hind quarters of a canine and horns like a ram. His character is heavy and powerful and solely concerned with survival. This creature is an instinctive predator that hunts large prey to satisfy its insatiable hunger. His tendency to rely on his brute strength and size my leave him vulnerable to clever attacks. Hunted is scheduled to be completed in May of 2014. For more on the development of this character click here.
Tamiraku
Tamiraku is a character that I developed for my senior film Hunted. I was responsible for modeling, rigging, and texturing this character. Tamiraku has been my dynamics guinea pig so to speak. I have been using this rig to test dynamic simulations I plan to use in Hunted. Developing Tamiraku and experimenting with simulations has been a great experience and has given me the opportunity to expand my skill set. Hunted is scheduled to be completed in May of 2014. For more on the development of this character click here.
Elephant
This elephant rig was completed for a Quadruped assignment in Non-Human Character Setup. The tail contains a dynamics setup that can be integrated with key frame animation. The rig was later used as an Animation asset in SCAD's technical Animation course.
Ant
I completed this rig for a arthropod assignment in Non-Human Character Setup. Due to the nature of this character I developed the rig in a fashion that gave the animator the most control over the ant with the least amount of controllers.