Research Essay: Rigging Assignment
Deadline: 17 March 2008
Comparison between XSI’s default Biped Guide and my Custom-Made Rig
SoftImage XSI contains several default bipeds and quadpeds for rigging humans and animals (Murdock, 2006). My custom-made rig allows me to be creative with characters and is limited only by my imagination and technical expertise.
A default rig is made from the default guide. The default rig is customizable and can be manipulated. This speeds up the overall animation process as the user doesn’t need to know all the workings of the rig in order to use it. The custom-made rig allows for flexibility but we have to have some knowledge on how to build the rig.
Setting up my custom-made rig meant that I had to know how to parent objects and use constraints. I also had to know which way the bones point and how to make various adjustments such as rotation and translating the objects to my own specifications. The custom-made rig has to have each object named where as the default rig already has all the objects named.
Custom-Made Rig vs. Default Rig
The default rig provides a standard skeletal structure for the user. The structure consists of a series of bones which belong to different hierarchies. It is advantageous in a situation where a scene requires many characters and so the automation provided by a default rig can assist users in constructing a large amount of rigs in a short time.
The default rig can be adjusted but a large problem is that not all users, especially beginners, know how to make adjustments. This is due to the complexity involved with rigging. By constantly using the default rig, the user does not get to explore the other possibilities available from creating their own rig.
We set up our own rig because it provides a greater understanding of the inner workings of a rig. This includes controls, parent/child relationships, constraints and many other aspects. This is very useful to an animator because it’s a hands-on approach to learning and the animator can benefit from making mistakes. It is always better to have an understanding of how a rig works because the user may have to switch programs in the future and the same principles leaned would be useful for transitions as such. Different studios may use bespoke animation programs and so it becomes very important to have an understanding of a rig than using an automated one.
Another reason is some users would want to create their own rig which would cater to their different needs. These needs range from having an unusually shaped character for example, an inch worm or a jack-in-the-box to animating computer simulations of emergency responses. The users would therefore set up their own rigs as opposed to using default rigs because it allows them to define our own parameters or characteristics.
References:
Murdock, K. 2006. Product Reviews: SoftImage XSI 5.1 Review. Available: http://www.gamedev.net/features/reviews/productreview.asp?productid=592
Accessed: 15/03/2008
Harriss, E. 2008. Overview of SOFTIMAGE|XSI 3.0. http://www.edharriss.com/xsi/version3.htmAccessed: 15/03/2008
