My Rigging and 3D Animation Skills

Here is my entry for The Rookies 2022. 
It represents what I achieved best during my 3rd year at ESMA, both in rigging and animation. Those are two different but complementary fields of 3D animation that I would love to work on when I graduate.

I am starting with my Rigging Demoreel, in order to show my best projects. I will take some time to explain what I show there. I promise to make rig as fun as possible during the explenation !

The character rigs are quite usual. FK and IK on the limbs, smooth FK-IK transitions, blendshapes for better deformations, bends on limbs and torso for better posing, choice of orientation for the arms, if they follow the chest rotations or not, and same for the head. Overall, those are features that are expected on a character rig, and that I know from last year. 

What I really developped this year was the simulation as part of a rig. 

The first obvious simulation part of the rig is CFX. I got to learn it for a group project in which I was the rigging artist. I also experienced many of the problems and mistakes that could happen, which made me stronger.

I had to manage both nHair simulation, but also nCloth simulation, along with exporting it for rendering. With a simulation dedicated attribute I allowed my animator to tweak the simulation without traveling the many different nodes that involve it. I also made sure to rename properly each node, to allow the addition of colliders easily.

For this same group project, I also rigged two props: a whip and a pair of handcuffs. Both these props involved simulation.

For the whip, I used a FK hierarchy for a basic movement possibility, but also a nHair simulation for a more detailed animation, especially for contacts. I allowed a smooth transition between the two behaviours for a better versatility. Using a nHair simulation always made me think of the whip as one big hair. Yes, rig is fun.

Note: for these two shots,the animation was done by PELLETIER Matthieu, the shading by DANTON Anna and MARQUET Julie, and the compositing by AZAR Joe. It was a group project as mentioned.

The last prop I achieved for this project was the handcuffs. For the chain simulation, I did a nCloth simulation with a high rigidity. Again, the simulation controller allows to tweak it without going through all the nodes. It was very useful since each chainlink has a nCloth node controlling its rigidity and other attributes.

Overall, even if the problems and mistakes lead to painful bugs, I really enjoy combining simulation and rigging. It extends the possibilities and allows for even better and more versatile assets.

But enough rigging for today, I need to keep my audience ! Let's talk about some animation.

Same as for the rigging part, my demoreel shows my best animation projects from this year.

I really like realistic animation. I enjoy giving life to characters and make them believable, without having to turn it into a joke  or something funny. The emotion is the core of an animation, and I always try to capture it as good as I can. 

Here are some other animations I didn't add in my demoreel. 

I hope you enjoyed my work as a rigging and 3D animation artist. I wish to develop even more my skills in those domains during the production of my short movie next year.