EARL

GENERAL NOTES:

• The controls are color coded:

                - Magenta = Center

                - Red = Right

                - Green = Left

• You shouldn’t have to pick joints at all on Earl.  You can hide the joints and use only the spline shapes to manipulate the character into your poses.

• You may notice some “extra” joints on Earl.  For example, there are “ulna” joints right below the elbow joints, but they cannot be rotated.  They were originally placed there to provide realistic forearm deformation, but Earl’s forearms are hidden under his sleeves!  It is easier to simply restrict their movement than it is to remove them after skinning the character.

• The neck chain has extra joints as well.  They were put there to provide a smoother neck deformation, but it was found that simply rotating one of the joints produced a sufficient deformation. 

• For the most part, the controls are just like the “Mack” controls. However there are some extra controls not found on Mack.  All the controls will be detailed below.

HEAD 

• The direction the eyes are looking is constrained to the magenta spline shape directly in front of his head.  As you translate the “EYELOOKAT”, the eyes will follow it.

• The orientation of Earl’s head is constrained to the orientation of the spline sphere (NECKCONS) directly behind his neck.  The actual neck joint is orient constrained to this spline shape, so as you rotate the spline shape, the neck joint will follow.

Note:  Notice that the eyes are still looking at the same spot, even though the head has turned.  This is because of the way the hierarchy of constraints is designed.  The EYELOOKAT has not moved, so the eyes have not either. Compare this to how "Adam" is set up and make sure you understand the difference.

• Earl's facial expressions can be changed.  The best way to learn about his facial expressions is to play with the settings. Remember that facial blend values can be both positive and negative, don't necessarily need to be whole numbers (and can exceed over the value of "1" although "1" is recommended), and can be combined with each other to obtain his desired expression.  You can use either the Blend Shape window (Window>Animation Editors>Blend Shape...) or use the Channel Box (from the Command Prompt, type "select faceBlend").  Probably the most important aspect of using facial expressions is the fact that you can make Earl blink.  Blinking is the difference between watching a puppet and watching a character we believe might actually be alive.  Experiment with what makes a good blink, both with the number of frames a blink lasts and how often blinks should be added.  Remember to key frame the eyes open, then closed, and then open again.

  

  Earl's character has the added advantage of being able to "speak".  He has facial blends which allow him to mouth sounds and words.  While Earl has a less expressive silent face than Mira (another character with blend shapes), his character can be used for lip syncing.

ARMS/HANDS

• Each arm is controlled by a Spline cube located around the wrist.  The arms are setup with IK from the shoulders to the wrists, and the IK handles are point constrained to the spline cubes (RHANDCONS and LHANDCONS).

• Note:  You'll notice that Earl does not have geometry between his fingers and his hands.  This is done on purpose to improve the speed of interactivity when animating.  Prior to rendering a final animation, you would want to fill these gaps with blend surfaces.

• In both wrist controls, there are custom attributes for:

   

  • Curling each finger (Thumb Curl, Index Curl, Middle Curl, Ring Curl, and Pinky Curl)

     

   

  • "Relaxing" each finger (Thumb Relax, Index Relax, Middle Relax, Ring Relax, and Pinky Relax).  This control simply rotates the fingers from their "base knuckle" allowing you to position them in a more relaxed position (The "relaxed" look is achieved at intermediate values of these attributes) .

     

  • The spread of the fingers (Spread)

     

  • Rotation of the wrists (Wrist Up Down, Wrist Side Side, Wrist Twist).

         

• Note: To make Earl "grasp" something, you would have to use a combination of the "Relax" controls and the "curl" controls.

• Note: These are fairly detailed hand controls, but they do not allow for some movements.  If you wanted to orient the fingers about their various axes in a very specific way, you would have to actually rotate the joints themselves and set keys on those.  

• The direction that the elbow points is controlled by the spline shapes directly behind the elbows (LELBOWCONS and RELBOWCONS).  The arm’s IK handles have “Pole Vector” constraints placed on them, constraining the Rotate plane of the IK solver to the spline shapes.  The translation of these determines the “third point” that defines the 2D plane that the arm will rotate on.

• Note: The Elbow constraints are parented under the wrist constraints, so that they aren’t easily lost amidst the other elements in your scene.  You may want to try having these not underneath the wrist controls in terms of hierarchy, there are advantages and disadvantages to either setup, try it both ways, and see which you prefer for your animation.

FEET/LEGS

• The spline shapes around Earl’s feet (LFOOTCONS and RFOOTCONS) control the IK handles placed on Earl’s legs and feet.  The translations control the location of Earl’s heels, as you can tell by the location of the pivot point.  Similarly, rotating these controls will cause Earl’s feet to rotate around the heel. 

• Each foot control has a "ToeUp" attribute.  This makes Earl's toes bend back.

• Similar to the arm setup, the direction that the knees point is determined by the spline shapes directly in front of the knees (LKNEECONS and RKNEECONS).  These are setup with pole vector constraints just like the arms.  Also like the elbow constraints, the knee controls are parented under the feet controls.

TORSO/HIPS

• Earl’s skeleton is rooted right around his pelvis.  Off the pelvis are the hips and the torso.  The torso and hips are independent of each other (they are sibling nodes in the hierarchy), which allows for independent hip motion, as in swaying hips. 

• The TORSOCONS is located directly behind Earl’s lower back and contains the following custom attributes:

• Bend Forward and B (this makes Earl's spine arch forward and back, it manipulates each joint in his spine chain)

• Bend side to side (like above except a sideways bend)

• Twist

• Note: You can also rotate the TORSOCONS, however this only rotates the torso joint.  The above attributes rotate all the joints in Earl’s spine, allowing for more detail and subtle motion.

• The HIPSCONS is located around Adam's pelvis.  Rotating this control rotates the hip joint.

WHOLE BODY CONTROLS

• The ROOTCONS is located in front of Earl’s stomach.  This spline shape controls the position and orientation of the root joint of Earl’s skeleton via orient and point constraints.  Moving this control moves all of Earl’s other controls except for the hand and feet controls.  This is useful for moving the body without moving his feet (squatting or jumping) or hands (pushing/pulling).

• The MAINCONS is located above Earl’s head.  It is the largest shape because it is the parent of all other controls.  Moving this control moves all other controls, and is useful for placing Earl where you want him in your scene.  You can translate and rotate this control to position Earl.  Typically, you move this only once to place your character where you like before you start animating, then move only the other controls.  You could move again later, but it is best to think ahead.  It is also useful if you want to set keys on every control.  Simply select the MAINCONS and set a key on it with your set key hierarchy options set to “below”. 

IDEAS ON ALTERATIONS YOU MAY WISH TO MAKE

• An alternative control setup for the head would be to use an aim constraint similar to that which is on the eyes.  This would allow the head orientation to be controlled by a “look at” shape, so that you could move the entire body and the head would remain looking at a fixed position.  If you do this, you may want to parent the EYELOOKAT to your new head control.

• You may also want to parent the EYELOOKAT to the NECKCONS or a joint in the head, to keep it close to Earl’s head.  As it is setup now, the eyes will remained fixed as you move the rest of the body, but if your animation does not call for this, you may want to try parenting the eye control, then as the body/head moves, so will the eyes.

• Recall the hierarchy of the wrist/elbow controls and the feet/knee controls above.  Experiment with animating the model with and without the elbow/knee controls parented under the wrist/feet controls, and see which method works best for your animation. 

• Again, keep in mind that you can disable expressions, remove IK handles, and change the hierarchy of controls to suit your needs.  Remember, experimentation and testing is the best way to find out what would work best for your animation!