Animation Dissection - Pt o3 [ Rigging ]

Rigging isn't going to be a small feat for the Ley Lines game, however ... though it may appear that we have a pretty large scope going on, that's just a pretty nifty trick on our parts! As of right now, we have six unique characters that will be modeled, rigged, and animated. Those characters are:

1.  Vala Isely, our protagonist
2. The Shellek Leader, our centipedal antagonist
3. The Temple Guard
4. The Flyer Shellek
5. The Swarmer Shellek
6. The Charger Shellek

That's six rigs, total. It's likely that this number may be five because Vala and the Temple Guard are likely to share a rig or, at least, the majority of it. We have the fortune that every member of the artist team has varying knowledge of the rigging process to help this part of the process along, if there are any hiccups.

This time, I have been researching rigs for every one of these characters - particularly the creatures.

THE FLYER SHELLEK

The design of the Flyer Shellek is a hybrid between a butterfly, a dragonfly, and some elements of a hornet.

As mentioned before, the lesser Shellek will have more mechanical movements. The insects that inspired each type of Shellek will serve as a base for their movements. However, as a whole, their motions will be jerky and erratic to capture the madness and corruption they are experiencing at the hands of Miria's "brain crystals". 

Body rigs for a flying character do not present much of a challenge. Because the Flyer is based off of a dragonfly, however, some research was needed for the wings. The end solutions ended up being very similar to how tails, ears, and any other appendage is done - only simplified, because the wings of the Flyer will only require a slight bend when flapping. The Flyer's main function will be shooting energy beams at the player & dropping repulsion bombs, so they will not require any intricate movements.

THE SWARMER SHELLEK

There were quite a few successful designs for the Swarmer Shellek that were liked by both the design team and the faculty. For the Swarmer, we are going with a design that's a cross between a spider and a crab. Its main function will be to ... well, swarm the player.

The video above displays a spider that's pretty close to our chosen design. So, it's likely that you'll be seeing a lot of IK handles for the legs so that rigid and mechanical look can be pulled off. IK handles also save a lot of time and trouble. They're pretty darn nifty. 

THE CHARGER SHELLEK

The chosen design for the Charger Shellek reminds me a of a scorpion with how its tail is formed. So, I went right to researching scorpion rigs to use as a reference when it comes time for me to finally rig this little guy. Its main function will be to charge down the player and fire a laser beam from its jaws. Unlike the other creatures, this Shellek might have to open his mouth. However, that's a fairly straight forward process as well that will be made easy with a well-crafted 3D model.

None of the lesser Shellek are in need of a refined rig as they do not require any intricate movements. Their rig will also be very similar to the Swarmer Shellek's, since they share similar leg structures.  Because their movements are fairly basic, we can focus on perfecting this and giving them some more 

None of the lesser Shellek require an intricate rig and they have fairly basic movements. Rigging them will be a straight-forward process. 

CENTIPEDAL MAIN BOSS

... Otherwise known as the Shellek Leader. This guy is based off of - wouldn't you guess it? - a centipede. One of the first rig reference videos I found was one of a very detailed centipede. The end result of this animators efforts looked extremely realistic and was rendered as such.

Fortunately for us, the design chosen only has fourteen legs instead of a hundred. There has been some talk about the legs not needing any movement whatsoever, with this main boss moving more similarly to a snake. Nonetheless, I am prepared no matter the route the designers choose to go!  

Rigging a centipede creature appears to be straight-forward but ... a very redundant process. Insanely so, because of all of the legs and body sections a centipede has. Rigging & weight painting this guy will need patience more than anything else. Because of their similar leg structures, the main boss will likely have plenty of IK handles as well.

 HUMANS

The entire artist track was introduced to human rigging late last semester, though a chunk of us had prior experience in this field! There were a few projects in the last semester where I became better acquainted with rigging humans and creatures to better my skills in this field. So, the rigging for human bodies doesn't raise too much of a concern. However, we have been in talks about creating facial rigs for scenes where Vala's face will be shown. Ideally, these scenes would be in the beginning and the end of the game to give some sort of "full circle" effect.

There are plenty of references and tutorials on YouTube for the human rigging process. One of these tutorials I have been currently referring is a series by TheGnimmel, who goes over rigging specifically for games.

 As mentioned before, we were discussing the possibility of creating a facial rig for Vala. Because of our chosen art style, we wouldn't require a rig that's so sophisticated that you'll see her temple muscles move. We desire a rig that can accomplish simple (but effective) facial expressions and perhaps a small amount of dialogue. Fortunately, there's plenty of tutorials in this department as well, along with the opportunity to go over this in depth in the Technical Art class. Because this has become a part of the discussions rather early, we can properly plan things ahead among the design team and the artist team so we can maintain a reasonable scope.

Animation Dissection - Pt o2 [ Cultural References ]

Research into animation for Ley Lines has continued! Last time, animation styles and references were chosen for humans, the main boss, and the lesser Shellek. Because we have a lesser volume of characters and creatures within our game, that will lend more time into granting each character the attention and detail they will deserve. So, this week. This time around, my attention has wandered into examining cultural references to use as inspiration for the world of Miria.

Vala was raised by members of the Prisima tribe. During this design process, we have been drawing a chunk of our inspiration from indigenous people. In particular, we're honing in on the Sami people; this is partly due to the similarity of silhouettes between them and the fictitious people of the Moebius world and partly due to their vibrant clothing and patterns. The Sami also lives a semi-nomadic reindeer hearing lifestyle, though only a few modern Sami still practice this.

A big reason for honing in on details like this is to get more of a sense of Vala's identity and the life she led before the point where Ley Lines begins. A person's cultural identity has a big influence on them as a person, so it's definitely something to explore more.

I'm currently researching more about them to put more thought into Vala's potential past and the Prisima Tribe's way of doing things & their day-to-day life. As of now, the focus is their movements, way of dress, mythology, and any cultural practices. Though, my designs and animations get inspired even by listening to some of their music. The manner in which the Sami revere reindeer seems to parallel the way the Prisima would revere Miria and tell tales of her, as though she was a goddess-like being. These traits, among others - like the affinity with nature, close bonds, and strong desire to preserve their heritage - are traits present in many indigenous tribes we have been referencing.

Another indigenous people being referenced is the Ainu, particularly their dances. For an animation, I roughed out the movements to their "Dance of Black Hair" - which is performed with women with long black hair. Ainu are traditionally animists, which means that they believe everything in nature has a spirit within them. Many of their dances mimic the movements of animals, which is something I think the Prisima may mirror to express their gratefulness towards everything Miria has birthed or given them.

This is the animation the roughed out animation exploring this facet of Vala's identity.

What's coming up next? The nitty gritty of animation design!

Animation Dissection - Pt o1 [ Inspirations ]

On every front, Leylines is making gradual progress as a game. Jean Giraud's Moebius series serves as our principle inspiration for this game. That being said, we're also taking artistic influences from Alex Toth, Lara Croft Go, and Matteo Bassini.  Now that we have an increasingly better foundation for the artistic style Leylines will be heading towards, animation research has now commenced!

As the animator for the Leylines game, I've approached my animation research by heavily considering both character and enemy personalities. Our producers have been hard at work crafting an imaginative, engaging, and intriguing world. In turn, our artists have been pretty skilled at conveying that world into their concept art. Call it a trickle-down effect because I've been influenced by those concepts!

VALA

Vala is our protagonist (that we swear is not named after Steffen). She can be briefly characterized as being brave, pure-hearted, and righteous. 

As it's planned now, her animations will likely be done through motion capture. A good chunk of the members on the Leylines development team have taken (or are currently taking) Motion Capture lessons to either record MoCap animation data or direct a MoCap session. Despite the fact that we're using MoCap, there's still some animation influences I plan on referencing when I get down to editing and personalizing the data. 

 

For Vala (and any other human in Leylines), our first animation reference will be the work of Hayao Miyazaki. His characters' body movements lean more to the realistic spectrum in comparison to other animation styles. His animations manage to be expressive, fluid, and natural with only enough exaggeration to really push the poses and truly embody the emotion they're expressing rather than become a caricature. Miyazaki's animations are littered with more subtle transitions, takes, and body language unique to each character. 

Miyazaki's animations only lacks in facial expressions. The eyes - which tend to be the most expressive part on a face - remain static for many of the facial expressions.

While Miyazaki pushed the body poses of each of his characters, Dreamworks' accomplished the same with facial expressions in Rise of the Guardians. Much of the character's personality and feelings can be told through their eyes alone. Jack depicts mischievousness, Pitch depicts a minor level of despair, and Tooth embodies joy.Their feelings are depicted by more than their mouths. Their eyes, brow, head, and body movement all unify to convey whatever they are feeling at the moment. This is all accomplished in a way that refrains from being a caricature. 

Centipedal Main Boss

 Currently under development is our main boss, which is based off of the absolutely lovely centipede. Roselyn is currently developing both 2D and 3D concepts for this being. Based off of those concepts, there's a vision that I'm having for this boss' movement right now. It'll be slow, deliberate, conniving, and arrogant. Despite that, it'll be easily triggered into erratic, snapping, and violent motions.

For this not-so-little guy, The Tale of Three Brothers from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - most specifically, the Death character - serves as an inspiration for the Centipedal. Death's precise movements indicate experience, wisdom, and power. We're currently considering the Centipedal to have snake-like movements. So it'll have motions that are more graceful, deliberate, and flow-y. This will aid in conveying a more looming, threatening, and arrogant personality in its body language alone.

Continuing on with that ... 

Eris from Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas is a mischievous, sensual, and malevolent troublemaker. Death in The Tale of Three Brothers is not portrayed as a villain but - instead - an inevitability that can't be run from. Eris, on the other hand, is the Goddess of Chaos. It's in her very nature to cause trouble.

Similar to Death, Eris' animations are very flow-y - following constant arcs. A great deal of her movement is captured in her hair alone (and the wispyness of her body, with her constant appearing and reappearing). Due to her more sinister facial expressions (laced with mischievousness), Eris comes across as far more malevolent and foreboding.  In terms of her flowy, foreboding, and subtly powerful movement, she will be used as an inspiration for our main boss.

In terms of accomplishing this ... I'm happy to say that the entirety of the Leylines team have been sitting in on Animation & Technical Art classes, or have previous experience in rigging & animation. Our current idea is to rig the Shallek enemies like mechanical mannequins to save us time on skin weight painting and perhaps lend that extra time to creating more enemies. Our art style is leaning more towards simplicity now to enable us to accomplish a greater volume of work. Because of that, everything else is needed to be on point.

What's on the table in the midst of this additional research? Storyboards & animation tests of the scenes the producers have already laid out! This was the very video that reminded me that's what I should be doing rather than treating this like a finished product. I truly admired the storyboarded animation work done here.