Adaptation: Lenny is finished! HUZZAH!

After many grueling hours sitting in front of a computer screen under the unpredictable mercy of Autodesk Maya, Lenny's rig is finally complete, with, of course, helping hands aplenty from Alan. Many thanks!

One particular aspect of this rig I'm pleased with is the stretchy torso, caused by the squash/stretch functionality of the spine. This enables me to give Lenny more cartoony physics when animating him.

Close-up of the spine's inner gubbins.

Demonstrating how the spine works when stretching.

 

Fully functional face

Here's a couple of angled shots of a walk cycle, demonstrating the rig in action.

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Now that the rig is completed, it's time to move on to how I'm going to present him in a turn-around. It's your big debut, Lenny. Give the ladies a smile!

Adaptation: Lenny's turnaround set (Also an erroneous spine mishap)

A very basic set I made in an attempt to both provide a suitable space for a turnaround while also keeping with the Eldorado theme (ancient, dark passageways, hidden underground corridors scattered with gold and riches, etc.).

I may need some help with lighting, though.

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On another note, I seem to be having some trouble with creating Lenny's spine while following the online tutorial. Alan, would I be able to get some help in correcting this on Tuesday if at all possible? I'm absolutely stumped as to why this is happening.

First error: The upper and lower skeleton seem to be separate, which results in this when I try to move the control:

Second error: After putting in the IK handle from the c_pelvis_jnt joint to the neck joint here, the central spinal column leans off-kilter to the side, which also distorts the mesh in the progress.

 The arrow here shows which way the mesh has moved after putting in the IK

 Third error: The arms stay in place when moving the spine controls when they're apparently supposed to move with the upper body.

Adaptation: Another Lenny Update

Created a gallery of facial poses for facial expressions and lip syncing. I also re-created his eyes and added the eyeball look control.

Here's the lip syncing in action! I had a lot of fun with this.

Adaptation: Lenny Update

    So after much banging-heads-on-desks and pulling my own hair out (I'm surprised I'm not bald by now) and, with the indispensable help of Alan, we managed to create a facial rig that doesn't require blend shapes.

     During the creation of this facial rig, I'm starting to have suspicions that Maya is programmed to act like a stubborn toddler.

Anyway, here's some mugshots of Lenny!

Adaptation: Lenny's Rig (WIP)

Thanks to some help from Simon, I managed to get the legs sorted out and fixed some issues with the hands.

(@Alan) Adaptation: Maya Rigging Troubles

I seem to be having some trouble with rigging my character's legs. I've followed the tutorial on the CG Arts Tutorials blog by the book (or video, even), but when I try to rotate the joints to test out to see if the rig is working, they won't rotate. It's like they've been locked into position somehow. Is the Uni open during the Easter holidays? I was just wondering if it'd be possible to go in and get some realtime help with this, that is if you or any other Maya-savvy person is in. 

I'm thinking this may be an issue with grouping, so I've posted my current Outliner setup.

I'm afraid to start rigging another part of the character and leaving the legs until after the holidays, because I don't want to find out that I've completely messed the rig up and have to start all over again.