Approaching PCC1: Female Rig

PFP (Portfolio Pre-Production) classes ended yesterday! Starting on Monday, I will be diving into my PCC1 project - the Female Rig. Over the weekend, I will be correcting some critiques on the rig (minor joint placement issues, setting up a more advanced facial rig such as the locators, joints and their controls) so that I am completely prepared to tackle this rig. I also plan to get started on it so I have a slight head start into this month, just incase of any potential troubleshooting errors arising later on - I will have extra time to take care of those issues!

We are allotted about two and a half - three weeks to complete the rig, and then the last week of class we will be creating a small demo to place within our demo reel for graduation. I can't wait to get started! Also, I will be posting up progress updates on it each week. Stay tuned!

Contact Information Update

Hi guys! I have some important news for those of you who need to/would like to contact me, or would like to check out my work through these last three months at Full Sail.
I have created my official business cards that I will get printed out very soon!
Also, I have created a professional website and changed my email from Hotmail to Gmail!

My website: www.shannongilmorecgwork.com
My gmail account: shannon2171995@gmail.com

My hotmail account is still active (shannon_2171995@hotmail.com) but I am slowly moving all of my information over to my gmail account. So if you need to contact me, please send me an email to my gmail account. Thank you all!

Solo Head Rig: Update

At last, I have finally got back to the solo head rig! This rig is primarily just aimed for me to use as a "practice" head rig, so I could experience a lot of trial-and-error, and decide which techniques work best for the rig, and which ones do not. This was my first attempt at an advanced facial rig, so I did encounter more than a handful of mistakes. Below I have posted a video of how I went about creating the joints on the face so that the joints will also follow along with the blend shapes that were created for the model (excuse the mistake I made of constraining the control icon to the locator, instead of the control icons offset group! I corrected myself afterwards). I only demonstrated one joint placement because as you can see, it takes some time. I am thinking about creating a script for this process so that it will be much quicker and easier for me on future facial rigs (I will keep you updated on this script). 

As you can see, the blend shapes are driven by icons in front of the face. As I said before, this has been a real learning experience for me so, now I realize now that I should create a GUI system on the side of the face so that it does not create so much clutter in front of the face. Also, I will create much more visible control icons that move the joints around so that it is much easier for the animator. I plan to create a visibility swap for these controls within the GUI system so they have the option to hide them or not.

I learned this technique from the Jeremy Ernst method: (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1600901/jeremy_ernst_fastandefficietfacialrigging.pdf).
The geometry that the blend shapes were created from is what I call the "cage" of the face. Its just a duplicate (or low poly model of the face, if available to you) of the mesh in which the blend shapes were created, and the rivets, locators, joint, and joint controller are all placed upon. Once all of that is created, you will then bind the joint to the Original mesh (the actual character mesh that you are using). This process helps avoid double constraints and allows for the joints to follow along for the ride with the blend shapes. Thank you for your time and interest in my work, and I am excited to learn even more about creating facial rigs through different techniques!

Demo Reel Assets (PFP)

So, as I explained earlier - this month for school, we are allotted time to prepare, research, and choose our assets for our demo reels that we will have created by graduation. I have chosen 3 character models that highly interested me and plan to approach each one differently. One model will be completed each month (March-May). The first month I will have PCC1, then PCC2, and then PCC3 for my last month. Here are my models! Can't wait to get started on them and keep you all updated on their progress! Thank you. :)

Female Model (PCC1)


"Lil Dragon" by Kyle Harvilesko (PCC2)




Creature (PCC3)

Update on Current Events

I just wanted to give you all a small update of what I have currently been up to!

As for the facial rig that I had been previously working on, I am still working on that outside of school. I am working out some kinks - deciding how I want to set up the interface controls, understanding how a facial works better, and finishing up the facial joint system. Just FYI - this model is not going on my demo reel, this is just simply a model I am using so that I can learn how to go about the facial rig system with different techniques by going through a lot of trial and error. More updates to come on that soon.

In school, I have been working on creating a personalized business card, website, and creating pre-pro for the last three months at Full Sail. The business card will be done by next Friday. The website will be up shorting following the business card. The pre-pro for the projects that will be created during the next three months are for rigs I plan to create. Each rig is unique with their own challenges. I am conducting research on each model on how to create the rig in an efficient manner, research on anatomy and skeletal structures that are similar to the model, a plan on how I intend to tackle the rig, and research on new rigging/scripting techniques.

I will post up progress updates of each model frequently. Thank you for your time and attention!