Bark the Stone Troll
Download Bark the stone trolls Rig here
During my studies at The Game Assembly, we had two consecetive courses in which we were to create a model, concept to uv-mapped model, as well as create a rig. It was during this course I created Bark the stone troll
Bark takes insperation from the stopmotion puppets of Laika Studios. I wanted to have the puppet like quailites of stopmotion for my model but with details that risk to be to work intensive for the stopmotion medium. The added details allowed me to further take insperation from one of my other great intrests, nordic folktales and to be more precise the trolls and Bergakungen.
Bark is modeled in both Z-brush and Maya. I created the high poly model in Z-brush to use as a base, I then used Maya to create a lowpoly model which would allow for the high poly to be baked down on top of it. I wanted the model to be more symmetrical than not to ease with the skinpainting later, but I still wanted some irregularities in the silhouette. This resulted in the use of asymmetrical uses of jewelry as well as some smaller differences in the silhouette.
Note that I have not textured the model of Bark, even though I uv-mapped it. The texture is done by Sixten Augustsson, a The Game Assembly alumni.
The rig for Bark is the of the first advanced full body rigs I’ve ever created, as such its base is a basic IK/FK rig. However, I’ve further added some additions to it, these include twistjoints for the arm, stretch for both the spine, arm and legs, a full facial rig with picker and a ribbon tail.
When creating the rig I used it as a challenge to improve my rigging further rather than just following a tutorial. This was mainly done with the ribbon controls. Instead of asking for step by step instructions from our educators or watching specifically aimed videos, I decided to only watch general ribbon explanations as well as deep diving into rigs created former animation students.
Body
- Face rig
- IK/FK arms, legs and spine
- Twist arms
- Stretch arms, legs and spine
- Suspender jewelry controls
- Ribbon tail
Face rig
- Eye rig and eyelid controllers
- Mouthbag with jaw and lip controllers
- Hair controllers, for bangs
- Ear and earring controllers
- Picker for eyebrow, cheeks and nose