Dance Animation: Model and Rig

This project was a bit more convoluted than the rest, but if there’s one thing I’m good at, it is sticking to a plan when I already have it. A group of six of us were tasked with splitting up into groups of two and creating concepts for floats in a parade; then, we were to create characters and animate them doing some action. I was paired with someone who stuck on the same page as me, modeled the necessary characters based on my existing character designs, and left it to me to rig and animate the dance. We chose the song Tick-Tack by ILLIT, and the appropriate dance they do. This project challenged me to both rig a human character, get it to look natural, and animate a dance to a rhythm in 3D. While the original file has been lost due to the account it resided on being deleted, I have all of the necessary remaining files to do with the work I completed.

One of the oddest parts of rigging had to have been the two arm structures I had to create for the main character’s pigtails, and following it up with the rigs for the other four characters’ hair. Allowing the clay-like hair to follow the movements of the characters’ dance was one of the most challenging parts of the project, as the model stretched and clung to itself. I considered giving the model back, but with the two-week time limit we had on this part of the project, I had to find a way to work around it by adjusting the rig just right until it functioned properly. If I did this again, I’d gladly take a bit more time to restructure the model, restructure the rig, and animate more cleanly with the current knowledge I have about animation principles.

Programs Used: Blender