So, here we are now. In total I have designed 3 different worms, each trying to implement a new type of rig into the body.
In the first one I went all out in designing and piecing together my worm by its sections. I wanted to go for a more skeletal style of worm that would appear very ominous. However I ran into a problem, my rig was not properly sticking onto the body or controllers of my worm. Things were exploding and pieces were flying all over the place, evidently processing too much information for each point. I learned later that this was likely because of how my body was put together using combines, instead of booleans. The system still doesn’t fully recognize the worm as one object and so attaching a rig to it is not straightforward. So I abandoned this worm and tried a second option.
The second worm I made again trying to utilize booleans and combines in tandem in order to mitigate some of the problems. I tried the same rigging system on the next one since it provided the most freedom of use. This rig consisted of joints with cluster handles that would influence other joints realistically when one joint is adjusted. I again went for the skeletal design, but decided to make it longer and leaner, furthering the spooky factor. But alas, the same problems arose, and I found I was not properly deleting history and freezing adjustments to reset the parameters to 0 on the object options.
Third try this time. I decided to tone down the design factor and focus on the rigging specifically. I again went for joints, but instead of doing cluster handles, I tried parenting the joints to each controller so that everything would stick together and move fluidly along a motion path. However the same problems continued arising. Things exploded, things being left behind, and now the worm was not properly attaching to the path, instead of straight-on it was sliding along like a skateboarder grinding a railing.
My last attempt at this was simply to make a mechanical sausage and string it along a path, disregarding any kind of fluid motion, I figured it was best to have something moving in the final video than not at all so this is what I ended up with.
This will be the final thing that roams the desert.
Bib:
Cromar, William. “Entitiesthreekindsofrig.” NewMediaWiki [Licensed for Non-Commercial Use Only] / EntitiesThreeKindsOfRig, http://newmediawiki.pbworks.com/w/page/127713090/entitiesThreeKindsOfRig.
The first image shows the ‘skydome’ as the large grayish marble. For some reason it was not showing up properly in the view of Maya, but in an IPR it looked very nice. In the second picture the warping of the disc is clearly seen. I manipulated the vertex points on the disc surface to raise portions of it. Then using the tools in the sculpting section I was able to smooth, stretch and file down parts of the disc to make it more natural. Finally the last picture shows where the camera will be situated for the movie. Instead of creating a boat, (which I tried, but ultimately did not like what I was coming up with), I opted for a simpler castle tower that I would apply a yellowish lambert on to make it look like sandstone.
