← ArchivePaper2023
The Versatile Rigging of Splat in Strange World
Omni-directional rig for Strange World's alien Splat allowing limbs to serve as both arms and legs, with versatile setup supporting unanticipated character poses.
Abstract
The physical and kinetic complexities presented by the character Splat in Walt Disney Animation Studios’ recent film "Strange World" are unlike anything the studio typically encounters from a rigging perspective. Splat’s unique physiology - an omni-directional character setup where up could become down and arms and legs were completely interchangeable - presented many unique obstacles for the character teams. In order to meet the challenges presented by the scope of Splat, new rigging systems were created, enabling limbs to be used for a large variety of situations, as well as an overall versatility of the entire rig to help support unanticipated uses in the film.
How to read this
- Category
- Production paper / rigging case study
- Contributions
- An omni-directional character rig for Splat in 'Strange World' where up/down are interchangeable and limbs can act as either arms or legs.
- New rigging systems letting limbs serve a wide variety of functions.
- An overall versatile setup designed to support unanticipated poses and uses across the film.
- Context
- Relates to freeform/flexible production rigging approaches (cf. Hunt et al., 2020 on freeform animation rigging) applied to an unusually non-standard creature physiology.Builds on: Technical Artist Summit: Freeform Animation Rigging: Evolving the Animation Pipeline
- Correctness
- Production case study from Walt Disney Animation Studios; results are proven on a shipped film but the rig is bespoke to Splat's physiology, so generality is limited and quantitative evaluation is not the point.
- Clarity
- Accessible to riggers; a first pass conveys the problem and design intent, a second pass helps for the specific rig-system mechanics.
- How to read it
- Read once for the conceptual problem (interchangeable limbs, symmetry of up/down) and design tradeoffs; revisit only if you face a similarly non-anthropomorphic rig and want to borrow the system structure.
Built upon by
Nothing yet.
Related work
- A.C.M.E. Multilimb System 2021 / DigiPro
- Sliding the Pieces into Place: Rigging the Pigeons of Spies in Disguise 2019 / SIGGRAPH
- Transferring a Labeled Generic Rig to Animate Face Models 2006 / AMDO
- Abstracting Rigging Concepts for a Future Proof Framework Design 2018 / DigiPro
Keywords
This page summarises the entry and links to its original source. The archive never hosts or redistributes the publication itself.Show it in the full archive list →