Wow! You said you were moving over a hundred controls for each eye for Pavitr, is that standard for a feature rig, or on the more complex side? The closest idea I had of what a production quality rig might be is Ray from CGTarian, which is described as "almost equal" in quality and functionality, but now I feel like the gap in complexity is way farther than I'd imagined 😅
Are there any specific things you feel separate production/feature quality rigs from rigs students might be using, or even anything about the rigs on spiderverse that you hadn't seen before on other projects?
Thank you for taking the time to answer people's questions, it's always so cool to learn more about the production!
it really differs from studio to studio! sony is the only feature studio i’ve worked at and all of their rigs tend to be set up in the same way. there are lots of levels of controls on the face that isn’t something i had ever worked with before when i was in tv. i worked in tv animation for 8 years before sony at lots of different studios, and all of the rigs there tended to be a lot simpler and more limited. that can be a good thing though because tv schedules are too tight to adjust tons of tiny controls frame by frame haha
for the mask eyes specifically, that many controls was needed in order to get the most accurately designed shapes! because they’re so expressive with their mask eyes, we needed a lot of control. if these were student or tv rigs, they’d likely be a lot more simplified
usually you don’t need those smaller controls as much for more rounded and soft looking cg movies but it was super important for spiderverse in order to get the characters on model because they couldn’t be modelled this way, so we had to pose them in anim
on the left is what miles’s default eye looked like; very almond shaped with rounded lids. on the right is how we posed it, with straighter lines and sharper corners, which the smaller “per edge” controls allowed us to do. we also placed the eye spec (the small white dot) and the limbal ring (the line that goes around the iris), along with all the expression lines! expression lines are extra geo with small rigs that we could add to the faces
the lines on the forehead, between the brows, and around the eyes were all lines that we added in anim. the ones around the nose, lips and chin were done by fx!
Also known as the “giant red mysid,” Gnathophausia ingens is a species of mysid shrimp. These brilliant beauties are typically found in the midwater and feed on smaller crustaceans. If threatened, the giant red mysid can release a glowing bioluminescent fluid that will distract the potential predator and give this cunning crustacean a few seconds to escape.
finally finished my semi-accurate shrimp genetics simulator and more importantly dress up game! if you’ve ever wanted to see a shrimp in a cool cowboy hat i have the perfect game for you.
(i want to add more accessories at some point - put some cool ideas in the tags!)
Hi, I love seeing your sculptures on my dash! I saw that you used polymer clay for them, but I was wondering how you painted and sealed them? I've seen people use resin to seal sculptures, but I'm scared of using it myself because of the eventual yellowing. Thank you!
Hi! Thank you for the kind words! For the paint, I use Folk Art brand acrylic. The metallic details are actually Dr. Ph. Martin’s Iridescent Calligraphy Colors which are a little tricky to work with because this isn’t their intended purpose, but the results speak for themselves lol.
Now, the part you actually wanted to know, I use a paint on varnish. I use DecoArt DuraClear. It works great and leaves a beautiful finish that is easily dusted and cleaned! I haven’t had any issues with yellowing so far and I’ve been using it for almost two years. However, if you use this varnish please be sure to do so in a very well ventilated area, and wearing a mask is a good idea too since it is made with polyurethane. Just a reminder to everyone to always double check safety practices yourself when using new materials. I hope that helps!
