Rig Critique 1

Today I would like to take a few minutes and mess with some character rigs made by people on the internet. I got these from CreativeCrash.com.

The first rig I critiqued was this dinoRig 2.0.0 rig from CreativeCrash.com, made by user Harry Gladwin other known as Geoghegan. This rig I think is beautifully made in that it's features are very effective for it's function as a rig, although I did find a few minor errors mostly within the back system. The biggest problem I found in the back was in the main hip joint. When pulling on the hip curve it created a hole and I remembered from lecture, when we were shown an FK spline, where the back fell through the control curves when pulled away from the rest. When the hip control is pulled too far away, the whole proxy falls through the hip and outside the rig. Another issue I found was in the shoulder controls. There seemed to be trouble when translating the shoulder as it is very sensitive and can almost break the geometry of the shoulder when pulled slightly. I really enjoyed the head controls on this rig's head, it has a great deal of set driven keys, which are all very useful in creating emotion and different actions on this character. 

Overall I had a ton of fun just fooling around with this rig and using the controls to make different poses that looked really interesting and life like for someone interested in dinosaurs. This rig with the exception of a few issues was very nicely done.

The second Rig I critiqued was this Daxter rig 1.0.0 from CreativeCrash.com by Davmawey. This rig is much more advanced than I originally thought it was going to be. The rig is very complex and a new or inexperienced animator at NaughtyDog studios in the time of Jak and Daxter would have had to spend a great deal of time getting used to all the variables, set driven keys, and IK controls. The facial control curves with constraints are extremely intriguing as they are extremely effective in creating a wide range of emotion. The only down side with these neat controls was in the forehead control having too much freedom when pulled down the animator can pull the down to his chin thus allowing geometry from the face to ghost through the forehead. The other features I enjoyed about this rig are that it's hand has an IK toggle switch so that the animator can choose to use the set driven keys or the IK curve toggled from the SDK. A major flaw that bothered me was that unfortunately, this rig only has one hand. Although the right hand was very intricate and well rigged, the left arm does not have a hand. I feel that overall looking at this rig reminds me of the rig we have been working on in class because of the simple mechanics of the rig's body. I was astounded with how well done this rig was despite the few flaws I could find. I just wish there were more controls on this rig that could complete this small character's huge  personality.