RHINO WALK

Here is a walk cycle of the rhino. Obviously I can experiment with how the head moves etc and there is still work to be done with animating the tail and ears. This aside the basics are there.

RHINO RUN CONTINUED

Here is a rendered out run cycle of the Rhino, his ears and Tail still need animating but for the most part i'm quite pleased with how it's going.With a further 10 days till animating is over.

REFERENCE VIDEOS

RHINO HOUSE

Rhino house has tons of animal referencing videos for animators to use in their animations and I certainly will be no exception. It may be an idea for me to get a months subscription for just $8!

RHINO GALLOP BLOCK

Today was spent blocking out a rhino Gallop at speed, the back legs are way too jerky however thus far.

EADWEARD MUYBRIDGE

Browsing in the library I remember that Eadweard Muybridge may be of some help to me as he specialized in animal movement photography. Having taken out his Animals In Motion book there are many breakdowns of horses runs and canters which distinctly match that of a Rhino. Not too disimilar is the walk and gait of a Buffalo and thus will provide suitable reference in which to block out my animation.

SCENE DETAIL

Having textured and added bump and depth to the trees the scene is now really taking shape! This is just a quick render of Work in progress. Next task is to texture and add depth to those pesky rocks in the background.

4 WEEKS 2 DAYS TO GO

ADDING DEEP WRINKLES

It was brought to my attention that the Rhino looked like he had the same bump depth all over and therefore unrealistic. Having taking this on board i'm now in the process of going through and editing textures and the bump map to give the Rhino much more depth with deeper wrinkles in places such as his face and neck.

FEEDBACK

Feedback from my peers was really helpful as sometimes you just need another opinion! This time everyone questioned said my rhino looked too clean and thus I need to edit my textures and rough him up a lot!

FINSHED RIGGING

After two weeks of toil the rigging process for my rhino is finally finished! Having all the necessary controllers the final few days will be spent testing the rig and adding or subtracting weights where needed. After this I can begin to block out my 40-50 second animation.
LOOK HOW CLEAN MY OUTLINER IS!

RIG TEST#2

Nearly finished working on my rig. At present I have controllers for the Feet, shoulders, Hips, Knee pole vectors and neck. Left are the control set ups for the head, ears and tail. These should be completed by Friday. I'm currently on track as my allocated rigging  weeks finishes on Valentines day. So instead of spending it with my girlfriend I shall be spending it romantically cleaning up the rhino rig. What a thought!.

RIGGING- CONTROL CURVES

Having Skinned and weighted the Rhino I am now in the process of creating IK handles and Controllers for the bones which will make it easier to animate. Seen above are the finished controllers for the Feet, Shoulders and also pole vectors for the knees.

WEIGHT PAINTING

Currently the bane of my life painting weights is slow and steady work. Seen above are the weights painted on the legs of the Rhino. They are relatively smooth in the X axis but further work is still required before I make the controllers.

SKELETON COMPLETE

Having completed the skeleton hierarchy and suitable skin bind the next step is to paint the weights. Pictured here are some ugly deformities on the front legs as we move them. These will have to be fixed.

RIGGING BEGINS

I've allocated myself till the 14th February, round about 2 weeks, to get the rigging and skinning of my character done. Here I am plotting the joint structure of the back legs and then mirroring them. 

CAPTURING AUDIO

The audio in my piece will be a voiceover in the style of David Attenborough. A third party (AKA my friend with the golden voice) agreed to be the voice of my piece in describing facts about the rhino. I booked out the sound studio and was able to record sufficient audio which can be synced to my piece.

IMPORTANCE OF A BUMP MAP

The above shot is a render of my rhino just with textures, looks ok but rather flat.

This render is with the bump map applied and brings out more of the Rhino hide that is far from smooth, I could also change the bump depth which would modify how deep the wrinkles and grooves would go. 

SATURDAY RENDER

With the texture of the Rhino still ongoing i'm slightly concerned at how realistic he looks, perhaps when we apply the bump map at a later stage the cracks in the rhino hide may become more prominent. Here i've imported the untextured trees just to get a feel for the scene. More renders to follow!