Prep Project 2 - Puppet Rig (Creation and Study)

5) Refine shape - Part 3

All of the character's body parts are now in place, and the rest is to make minor adjustments before jumping into the rigging. I reduced the number of joints on the waist and added more vertices to the arm and leg to make the shape look less shape and then changed the position and shape of the knee.

I also added the simple geometry shape on the joint part to represent the connection joint. These parts aren't necessary to the rig, but I think it makes the rig look more believable
and does not look like their part are floating in space.
Lastly, working on the feet by separating the geometry into different parts to create the joint.

Now I think this character is now ready for rigging.

4) Refine shape - Part 2

I continue refining the rest of the body parts. I worked on the shoulder, breasts, ears and head.
I decided to reuse the head model from Prep-project 1. since it already has a good topology flow. I then remove the eyes and mouth and reduce the vertices to simplified the head shape.

3) Refining shape - Part 1

To make this rig look more convincing in usage and better represent the human body shape. I need to add more vertices and start refining each part. The goal is still to keep as low poly as necessary and pay attention to the part that will be the joint of the movement.

2) Idea and Shape block out

The idea for this project is a reference to real-world action figures. It clearly shows a connection between each part of the body. I want to make a rig that focuses on posing and overall silhouette before putting in any detail, like stretching, facial expression, follow-through motion, etc.

So, I start by blocking out using simple geometry.

Greetings, My name is Thanathorn.
I am interested in 3D animation, which led me to want to explore more, learn more in-depth, and try out different things.

Introduction

When I made my first short animation project, I had problems with the frame rate dropping when working inside Blender. (Even for one character with an empty scene). I always used the "Frame dropping" feature in animating, but the result still looks different between the render and the viewport. It costs a lot of time that wasted to go back and fix all the mistakes.

So from then on, I try to think of a way to have my character rig work smoother and get the smooth motion easier from the viewport.

The purpose of this project is to:
1) Create a rig with good performance in animation that will avoid frame dropping.
2) Create a rig that focuses on the motion and pose of the character's main parts.
3) Create a rig that has more freedom in the workflow and is reusable in multiple stages of production.

* The creation and usage of this rig will be in Blender since this is the software I feel familiar with the most.

Process

1) Rig preparation