Investigation Blogpost: Week 12

This Week's Work:

Monday (2/14): Continue modeling interior

Tuesday (2/15): Continue modeling interior

Wednesday (2/16): Continue modeling interior

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IK:

I had downloaded a rigged model of a knight character I needed for my story instead of making one. I examined its rig and wondered how/why it differed so much from mine. I had, of course, assumed it wasn't done using the rigify modifier. It was a lot more simple and easy to understand than what I'd done for the models that I made, though. I remember last year when I was doing my character actions animation/final project where the rig for that model too was intuitive and easy to manage.

Knight Model: https://blendswap.com/blend/28541 

Farmer Girl Model (from last year): https://blendswap.com/blend/22891

So I looked up a tutorial on how to make quick and easy rigs. I found a relatively short video that explained how to add IK controllers to your mesh that provided the same streamlined way of posing as the other rigs did. I was quick to try it out on my king model until I went to parent it and realized it wouldn't be compatible. The tutorial was done on a mesh without a face, and there was no "generate rig" step. While the IK controllers were super useful, my project (mainly meaning my king model) didn't support it.

Still, with this newfound knowledge of IK with me, I inspected my king model to try find the rigify modifier's own. I was already aware of the menu I had to go to, but this time, I understood the options it had given me. I played around with the settings for a while, trying to get my model to behave the way it was supposed to. During the process, I discovered how my clothing interacted with my body mesh and made a mental note to fix that as well. Anyways, it took some time but I have done most of what I needed to do to make the rig behave better. Though it's still not better simpler than the other versions.