Starting the Rig

Having fine-tuned the model the tiger is now ready for rigging. I've decided to used a mesh which is double the resolution of the base mesh I initially modelled in order to give a higher level of control over the deformations.

I've spent a long time poring over videos on the internet of tigers moving in various ways. One of the biggest challenges, it seems, is getting the tiger's unique front leg and clavicle movement right. What I've found from the videos is that the clavicle is always more or less pointing towards the paw. This is an effect I thought could be achieved by somehow utilising an aim constraint which dictated the rotation of the clavicle as pointing toward the paw.

I decided to test this out and came up with this:

I think with a little fiddling about and maybe adding a physical clavicle bone mesh into the muscle system it'll work pretty well.

Having done that I've made most of the rest of the skeleton:

Now I'm moving on to the facial rigging which I think is going to be a big challenge to get right. I think I'll probably do the whole face using joints as these give a more organic, non-linear feel than blend shapes.

More soon.