HOW DO I MAKE MY RIG ANIMATOR-PROOF?
Izzy Wood, Chesterfield
Having the ability to construct complex systems that allow an animator to easily and intuitively bring a character to life is a true skill, and one which takes time to learn and master.
It’s not just a case of adding IK and FK to a creature’s limbs or producing a few blend shapes so they can emote. Rigging goes deeper than this, but the truth is all anyone will ever see are a series of colourful curves overlaid on top of a model. All the time spent developing systems, building node structures and tweaking skin weights is hidden away, and so it should be. At the end of the day, it’s our role as technical artists to create a rig which on the surface looks so easy to pick up and pose that a child could do it, while underneath the simplistic shapes actually lies a far more complex web of joints, ribbons and constraints.
It’s these systems which are the driving force of the rig, and just like the engine of a car they need to be hidden away, shielded from the driver so they cannot be touched as its speeding down the motorway.
Something as simple as selecting and moving an IK handle or rotating an offset group could have drastic effects on the whole pipeline. A stray keyframe could lead to animation not being exported, it could also make the characters limbs move unpredictability, and controls shoot off into the distance. These are extreme cases, but I have seen them happen time and time again, with the result being a hit on the schedule as the rig is rebuilt.
As unfortunate as this is, none of the blame lies with the animator. If the rig is
not correctly locked down, then anything that’s left visible and selectable is up for manipulation. It is not the animator’s job to know what they can and cannot touch, they just want to pick up the rig and bring the character to life.
Therefore, it’s important that before you hand over the rig, you’ve also taken the time to hide things away, locking attributes and organising the hierarchy.
So, what follows are a few things you can do to your rigs to make sure they are tamper-proof.