Appealing Deformation: Clean Mesh = Predictable Articulation

So you just spent some time on your brow weights, getting your spans to flow in a nice appealing smooth shape. Congratulations! Now let's mouse over the below image to see how it holds up in the opposite position.

(hover mouse over image to see poses)

Gross. It doesn't hold up at all. What was smooth in the down pose, is now jagged in the up pose.

In order for the emotions of the character to read clearly the brows should flow as a cohesive unit, giving us a soft arc when the brows are up and a bold straight when the brows are down. Take a look at these drawings of Aladdin to see examples of bold and clean brow shapes.

(hover mouse over image to see poses)

This all boils down to how clean our default mesh is. The more even and clean our edge flow is in the default state, the better chance it has of holding up in all poses. We are talking very small positional changes that have the potential to create very large and very noticeable improvements in our rigs. Once our mesh is cleaned up, we will even see that smoothing weights is a bit more predictable and useful.

Below is a version of the mesh cleaned up in it's initial state, an how that now plays well with our two poses.

(hover mouse over image to see poses)

Now obviously we can't have every edge smoothed out and evenly spaced; our models would become mushy and bland. In a later post I will go into how we need to be mindful of vertex speed when adjusting influences and how skinning workflows should involve setting key-frames.

Update

Haven't posted in a while, I've been very busy at work and very busy at home working on personal projects. So back in Nov., the game I spent 2 years working on was released, Tomb Raider: Underworld. Since then I have moved on to another project, where I have been able to start working from a nearly clean slate. When I started at Crystal, TR:U was nearly finished with preproduction, and it was my first job ever so needless to say, mistakes were made....by me. I was trained in film, and as an animator and I felt I knew that pipeline pretty well from my schooling, but this was a game studio pipeline that I knew nothing of when I started. I learned TONS of priceless lessons by going through that experience, and two years later we shipped a game with a functional pipeline. It's great to take what I have learned over the past two years and start fresh from the beginning of a project. My co-workers and I have accomplished so much so far and I am excited for what we have in mind down the road. Meanwhile, many of the people who worked on TR:U are still plugging away to bring the fans some download-able content available on the Xbox 360 which is looking good.

Meanwhile, when I'm not watching Brit work on her paintings for WonderCon, I have been trying my best to help out with Joe's project. He is making a trailer for a concept he has been developing called Star Fish Ninja. I have been helping out with the rigging, and I can't wait till you guys can see it.

I also have been passing the time teaching myself how to model. I haven't modeled since my Sophomore year when I just shoved cylinders and spheres together.

It has been really helpful as a Rigger to do some modeling. I have learned a lot about how to model for good deformation, and it has also been good practice for translating someone else's design into 3d. Brit was kind enough to let me work on one of her Hawaiian god's Kane. Here is the painting and my work in progress.

Anyways, that is what I have been up to. Learning lots and being greatful for the opportunity to do so.