Greg Driedger shows an interesting take on a 2D cutout rig in Maya that uses NURBS surfaces rather than polygons. Greg doesn’t show how they were built, but he does show how some of it was put together and how it works.
It is an interesting approach where the constructive geometry or the incoming curve that was used to derive the shapes are incorporated right in the rig. This will allow the animators to alter the shapes as needed for specific poses.
We have seen some 2D cutout rig style in Maya before, most will use polygons as they are the most flexible geometry type in Maya. Technical / FX Artist Mahmoodreza Aarabi showed off some of his 2D character rigging and animation tools within Autodesk Maya. Madoodia shows off a biped and quadruped auto rigging tool, as well as a custom pose manager. NURBS seem to offer some unique qualities that would lend themselves well to right like this.
The rigs are created for a pitch idea contest – Story Hive. In fact, if you like what you see, they could use your help in the form of a vote, which will cost you noting but a few seconds of your time! You can check Greg out on twitter pixelbluegreg, and the project on instagram stonecoats.
Check out the Stone Coats pitch here.
AN INTERGALACTIC YETI CRASH LANDS ON EARTH, TEAMING UP WITH A CHILD, BEAVER AND FISH, THEY SET OFF TO EXPLORE THE WORLD.
Stone coats follows an intergalactic yeti who crash lands on earth. He is discovered by an 11 year old kid, Luna and her pet beaver, Justin. Enlisting the help of a mutated fish, the 4 join forces to become The Stonecoats, A crew set off to explore Earth and search for more of yetis kind. It is rumoured that long ago, the yeti species was scattered throughout the galaxy and many ended up on Earth. The series will explore geography, science and astronomy.