METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR GENERATING AN ANIMATION CONTROL RIG INCLUDING POSING OF NON-RIGID AREAS
In an embodiment, an animator is provided with an indication when a model's component such as a joint or limb is being moved or twisted in a way that would be unnatural and cause unusual stress on the model component. For example, as a shoulder joint is stressed by moving an arm in an extreme position a yellow bar or coloring of the shoulder, arm or other component can grow increasingly bright and shift to red just before a breaking point is reached. An animator can choose to go past the breaking point and the breaking can be modeled and incorporated into the animation.
1 . A computer-implemented method for generating an animation control rig configured to manipulate a non-rigid portion of a digital character, the method comprising:
associating a control shape with the non-rigid portion of the digital character;
accepting a signal from a user input control to move the control shape to specify a new pose for the non-rigid portion of the digital character;
traversing a hierarchical node graph representing a plurality of animation control points associated with the new pose;
identifying a plurality of nodes that are implicated in moving the digital character to the new pose; and
using the implicated nodes to display the new pose for the non-rigid portion of the digital character.
2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the digital character includes a skeleton, wherein the control shape is adapted to handle an area of motion.
3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the non-rigid portion includes a belly.
4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the non-rigid portion includes a tail.
5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the non-rigid portion includes lips.
6 . The method of claim 5 , wherein the non-rigid portion includes a face.
7 . An apparatus including a processor configured to perform the actions recited in claim 1 .
8 . One or more non-transitory processor-readable media including instructions executable by one or more processors to perform the actions recited in claim 1 .