3D Model Rigging 03

Week 2 - Day 3

Yesterday was a total blur of information overload. I can't recall much, which is a bit worrying...Anyway, we did some weight-painting yesterday, which turned out to be a bit moot later on when we discovered that we had to do some "blend shapes" which pretty much requires a total detachment of the skin from the joints (I could be wrong?). In any case, the weight painting I did yesterday is GONE, which means I'll have to redo that after I'm done with the blend shapes, but still, UGHHSDJKFHSKDJFHSKDHFKJSDHFJKSDHF.

Practice, practice, PRACTICE. (I don't wike it.)

But you gotta do what you gotta do.

How do I explain blend shapes? To be honest, I haven't got the slightest clue how to go about that! I can, more or less, understand the concept of it and actually do it on my own models but to actually go into the reasoning of HOW and WHY...well, you won't find too much of that here...

What I CAN do, however, is go through the steps in hopes that it'll drill into my brain so I can do it again on a different model if need be...

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Such torture...

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OKAY! Blend shapes. I went back to a previously saved increment and managed to find one where the mesh and the joints weren't connected together yet and did a copy of the body geo.

Blend Shapes!!

As you can see, I've got a master of the body geo; this is where the magic happens. The duplicate of the master is the dummy and from the dummy we get duplicates again to make it into whatever I want. In this case, I made them into fat and skinny versions of the master. I'm not actually going to use them - it's just nice to know I can edit them later if need be. I hid the dummies in a separate layer so they won't show up on the main screen. Layers are good...

Master Controls!

 I forgot to name them properly when I made the blend shapes...OPPS. But I didn't repeat it with the geos for the head, ears, hands, etc...so it's all good. The master key should always be at max. I'm not sure why, I forgot most of the reasons behind it...(Blugghghhsjsshka...)

Outliner Galore...

I'm, uh...not sure what to do with my outliner. I'll need to ask Keat on help for how to clean them up - whether I can put them all in separately named groups or to just leave it as is? As you can see, I combined the separate pieces of the bunny ears, hair, eyes, etc together for easier duplication. I'm not sure if this was a good idea or not...but I could always go back a couple of saved files before I did this so that's all good, too...I've got 50 saved increments and counting...

(So, please, don't let me be wrong...)

Stay tuned for the next epic fail.