Rig Master Workshop
Rig Master Workshop
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At the end of 2024, I participated in a character animation workshop led by Tiago Castro. At its conclusion, a challenge was proposed to all participants: create and animate a full character rig in just one week. At the end of the challenge, my rig was selected for first place. As a prize, I won the organizer's course and had my work featured on his Instagram profile.
Illustration Preparation
Illustration Preparation
One of the most critical steps before animating an illustration is separating the elements that will be put into motion. I chose a barber illustration from Envato, as I saw that its pose was interesting and had great potential for animation.
Since the illustration was not originally designed for animation, I had to separate its elements into multiple layers and retouch certain parts to ensure they wouldn't break during the character's movement.
The Rigging Process
The Rigging Process
The part I most enjoyed working on in this challenge was the character's head, as it allowed me to apply several techniques I learned in the workshop that I hadn't had the chance to test yet.
Head Movement
Head Movement
To create the head turn, I generated a depth map from the illustration. I then animated the parameters of a Displacement Map effect and linked them to Duik controllers for intuitive handling.
Facial Expressions
To create the facial expressions, I used the Liquify tool to generate the base distortion. Since this is a very performance-heavy effect to work with in real-time, I pre-rendered the frames and then animated them using Time Remap.
Hand Rigging
This was by far the most laborious and time-consuming part of the animation. Since the character is a barber, I focused on creating subtle finger movements to represent his professional skill.
Each finger was separated and rigged independently. With the help of the After Effects Puppet Pin tool and additional Duik bones placed at each finger joint, I achieved a fluid animation with minimal unwanted distortions in the mesh.
Final Result
Final Result
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