Rigs and Mel Scripts in Whale House

Accomplishments

• Finished rigging Augher (6 hrs)
• Why did it take me 6 hours? Well... repeatedly clicking on the same things over and over again took a huge chunk of time. Creating and testing out the IK rigs took a bit of time as well. Adding in all the controllers, naming them correctly and see if they work took a huge chunk of time as well. The last hour was after I thought I finished the rig, but went back to it to double check and found out that the left arm was actually rigged improperly. So I fixed it and then I found out that the updated version of the model didn't really match up with the rig. Anna told me that she edited the model in Modo and moved back into Maya so the scale went off a bit. So I went and scale and moved around the new model so it would match up with the rig.
• Finished up the Generating Controllers MEL script (2 hrs)
• Screen record of how the script works (no sound): 
• https://www.dropbox.com/s/ig858rs7y4c7a2h/Controller_Script.mov?dl=0

• Made the IK Rig MEL script (2.5 hrs)
• Screen record of how the script works (no sound):
• https://www.dropbox.com/s/xuh97oivryai6ni/IK_Script.mov?dl=0
• Looked over some concept art and made a few comments (.5 hrs)
• Researched for other possible things I can do with MEL scripts (1 hr)

Works In Progress

Nothing much yet since there is a bottleneck effect for our production. We haven't yet finalized the concept art for the Sniper and Tank units which delayed everything else. But once the concept art phase is done, I believe we will be able to finish up the rest of the production phase really fast. Other than that, I've been making MEL scripts and adding on new features to the scripts when I felt like it's something I will need.

Next Steps

• Upgrade and make more MEL scripts
• Jump to rigging once a model is out

Issues

• I should have made the script first before finishing rigging Augher. It would have saved me a lot more time. I've spent too much time clicking on the same thing over and over again when I want to add controllers to a joint. The same goes for creating IK and FK for the limbs. 
• The rig for back legs of Augher broke when I applied an IK rig to it. So I had to set up the joints for it again and line them correctly to the legs. That took a bit of time itself since the legs are out in an inconvenient angle, BUT! I was able to have it working. 
• Found out that the rig at the left arm was kind of messed up. I parented the controller to the wrong joint and I spent around half an hour fixing that. 
• The scale of the new model was a bit off from the rig I made, so I rescaled and moved around the model to match the rig.

Last Minute Comments

The first playable works! WOOOO!!! I had fun playing it with Jon and Dylan when we tested it out during our meeting on Friday. I'm excited to see it progress as Spring comes closer and closer. 

Kai-Lin Chuang