Rigging- Trying on a new model

Before starting more complicated lessons, such as blend shapes, I decided to re-rig another model with more polygon density and better topology. I took this as an opportunity to re-cap what I have learned for the past few lessons and ensure I remember everything after the holiday break.

I found this stylized male body model in TurboSquid for free, along with the texture.

link-> https://www.turbosquid.com/3d-models/3d-game-and-animation-ready-base-mesh-model-2284746

First starting the rigging process, I placed the joints through the whole body. This time, I was mindful of the angle of the knees, making it easier to direct where it bends. Also, as this model had individually articulated toes, I made sure to place joints on each toe so I could control them like we did with the fingers.

After that, I created the controllers and placed them on each joint. I was mindful of the shape of the controllers so they would be easily identifiable. When everything was done, I organized the hierarchy and constrained them with the joints. This included setting driven keys on the fingers and toes.

Before binding the skin, I tidied the outliner to make each component easier when navigating.

To wrap up my recap, I adjusted the weight distribution throughout the model by using weight painting and component editor. This model is all ready for blend shape!

Conclusion:

I could notice that I was able to pick up a lot of speed while rigging, and also remember a lot of the details that I learned. The tips and shortcuts that I learned while following Academy Phoenix's tutorial came in extremely handy.

However, I had to go back and re-watch a few points of the tutorial- such as setting the foot rig. I plan to try rigging another humanoid model after completing the lesson series to make sure I understand the fundamentals and be ready to apply them further.