Skinning

Just like rigging, skinning was also a long task. I came across a few kinks too, such as incorrectly using the mirror skin weights tool when painting the chest are. This adjusted the arms that I had already done, and required me to re-do them, which was frustrating, considering how long painting weights properly takes.

Slowly but surely, I got through the whole of the upper body and created influences as best as I could, and was able to move my character in most positions.

I came into massive problems when dealing with the legs however. The way I had modelled the character made it impossible to properly distribute weights smoothly like I had done with upper body. I created only one edge loop between his two legs, which ran through his groin area. At least two or three are needed here.

This was the result of that:

Starting again at this point in time was not an option. Everything would have to be redone for the sake of two more edge loops. With this, I knew I wouldn't be animating the legs like I had planned. I wouldn't my character to perform a few action sequences in order to demonstrate that he is an effectively tough villain, which would involve kicks and jumps. I even rigged the legs in a way so as that animating jumps would be extremely easy.

Along side his action sequences, I wanted to create an animation of him looking like he is giving orders to minions. Naturally, in light of this, I will have to omit the legs and have the camera focus only on his upper body. Perhaps movement of the waist and an rocking camera can perplex a viewer into believing that he is walking.

Nevertheless, this is something to learn from, and if I'm going to make a mistake like this, I would rather that it happened now while I am student than during the course of my career, as it can be very burdening.