While at Digital Domain, Jeff Brodsky worked tirelessly for a couple of weeks to come up with a Variable FK rig for a trunk of an elephant while working on the film Legend of Tembo.
Here, Jeff breaks down how a traditional FK rig would work for something like this, and how his rig differs. One of the major differences is that you are able to effectively “push” the bend in up or down the length of the trunk giving you a realistic movement.
In this video we take a look at the inner workings of the Variable FK trunk rig
The idea to facilitate this was to have the controls for the rig slide up and down the length of the trunk, and Jeff came up with using a NURBS surface that had a weighted span at each joint, with a Maya Follicle that drives the joint.
Jeff goes through the rig in entirety, marking the challenges, problems and solutions along the way providing a great overview for this unique trunk rig.
Jeff has recently become a mentor with the mighty RiggingDojo working with apprentice students to help them grow and improve their work to be animated feature film ready.
