Testing the Blendrig5 addon

Still Alive

Still working on Oil Spill episode. Modeling props, sets and new characters. I have been reading a lot about the Blendrig5 addon by Juan Pablo Bouza. I was never happy with Ebil's rig. I have been avoiding the issue. I did not want to step backwards in this project. However, after reading some documentation and watching some videos I tried it out. This project has been in my head for a long time, a little more will not kill me.

Mostly out of the box blendrig5 test. I have not yet weight painted the bones (hands, feet, and face not fully rigged). I am super impressed with the quality of the deform at this point. The learning curve is much steeper than rigify and the process is more time intensive. But the results are magnitudes better. Rigify does not have deformers the way blendrig5 does. I was kicking myself for scope creep and going backwards to use the blendrig5 but I am so glad that I did.

Here is a quick 80 frame render to look at the deforms and compare to my earlier tests with rigify.

NEW

Blendrig5 test

OLD

old rigify rig. from ebil fitness camp 

 Note: The gote will be attached to the glasses bone later.

Blendrig5 was developed by Juan Pablo Bouza. Check it out!
Check out my Ebil fitness camp I did a few summers ago.

Oil Spill: Penguins

Birds of a Feather

Working on modeling some simple penguins for the Oil Spill episode. Need a bunch of these little guys.

Penguin concepts. Click to enlarge.

Procrastination and pipeline

Took a break from Ebil to update some other project and develop some new skills. But I have been done with that for a month or more. Picking Ebil back up is hard for me. I'm very good at procrastination. I'll tell you more about that later.

One good thing I have been doing is keeping notes and tracking of my progress. This makes it much easier to pick up where I left off. I have been using a freeware program called task coach (link)

Task coach

Task coach is a souped up todo list. More than keeping a list of task, it allows you to create categories and nest your tasks. I created a category for characters then broke that task down into Model, texture, and rig. Each can be broken down into subtasks. The program will track you time spent on each task. You can also leave notes. It does not support teams directly, but as a one man band it fits my needs well.

My task organization for character development

One of the many problems with taking a break from a project is skill creep. I have learned new techniques and honed old skills. The desire to rebuild existing assets is strong.

linking and posing workflow

I have been linking my Ebil files using the import>link command and it has its limits, but I am getting use to them, or learning how to use them. I have Ebil modeled and rigged for this project (may revamp for a later episode.)
workflow:

1. Open my current ebil .blend file with my rigged and skinned Ebil.
2. Select all of the elements I want to pass down the chain (model, rig ,rigify bones and custom shapes)
3. Create a group for all of these objects(CTRL+G) name it something useful.
4. Open new .blend file
5. import>link the group from the current ebil.blend
6. import>link or append the rigify script for the U.I.
7. select the rig and create proxy
8. Create pose library for the rig.
9. Select the proxy rig and the mesh and create a new group name it something_poses
10. save file
11. Now I can link that group into my scenes and animate

If I need to update the model or rig I edit the current .blend. If I want to add or edit poses I edit the *_pose.blend

Quick render of the current Ebil rig.