Film vs Game Rigging

Javier Solsona
Lead Character Technical Director - DreamWorks Animation

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Class Summary

This class will examine the differences and similarities between rigging for
Feature Films and rigging for games.

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Learning Objectives

At the end of this class you will:

• Understand how a character pipeline truly works

• Understand the core differences between rigging for games, film and
feature animation
• Understand the similarities between rigging for games, film and feature
animation

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About Me: How I Got Here

• Born in Argentina
• Obtained B.Sc. in Computer Sciences in South Africa
• Studied 3D in Brazil
• Worked in London as Graphic Designer
• Studied Animation in Vancouver
• Worked in Gaming in Vancouver
• Currently working in Feature Animation in California

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About Me: Work

• VFX
o Lost Boys Studios

• Gaming
o Electronic Arts
o Propaganda Games (Disney Interactive Studios)

• Feature Animation
o DreamWorks Animation

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Character Pipeline

• There are generally 7 steps that a character goes through from initial
concept to the screen

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Character Pipeline

Idea Design Model Surface

Engine

Animate Rig

Render

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Real Character Pipeline

Surface
Render/
Engine

Idea Design Model

Animate

Rig

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Film vs Games: Pipeline - Differences

Final Output

• Film
o Render - Image

• Games
o Export - Engine

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Rigging

Idea Design Model Surface

Engine

Animate Rig

Render

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Why Rigging is Important

• Without the rigging process, animators cannot pose a character and see
it move
• Rigging gives shape and form to a character's movements
• Without rigging a character cannot come to life

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Who Makes a Good Rigger

• Potentially anybody
• Technically inclined artists
• Artistically inclined software engineers

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Rigging Steps

• Motion System
o Motion system rigging is the process of creating the control objects
(skeleton) that the animators will use to move the character

• Deformation
o Deformation is the process of attaching the skin of the character to the
skeleton

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Motion System: Key components

• Simple
• Fast
• Easy/Intuitive to use
• Not be restricting
• Provide all the tools needed for the animator to pose the character

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Motion System: Uses

• Key-Framing
• Motion-Capture
• Procedural animation

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Motion System: Key-Framing

• Motion system controlled exclusively by the animator

• Process closest to classical 2D animation
• Animator sets keys in different keyframes and the software interpolates
the poses between these keyframes

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Motion System: Key-Framing - Who Uses It

• Feature Animation
• Creature work in Visual FX (usually non-humans)
• Games

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Motion System: Motion-Capture

• Data from a performance capture by an actor is keyed

• Actors often use a special suit so that the computer can capture their
movements precisely
• Keys in every keyframe
• Usually used as an input or guide for key-framing

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Motion System: Motion-Capture - Who Uses It

• Visual FX
• Games
• Film - Layout

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Motion System: Procedural Animation

• Constructed using dynamic objects, such as springs

• Often used for secondary motion (i.e. a ponytail)

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Motion System: Procedural Animation - Who Uses It

• Visual FX
• Feature Animation
• Games

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Motion System

Geometry Joints Operators Controllers Geometry

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Motion System: Geometry

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Motion System: Joints

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Motion System: Operators

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Motion System: Controllers

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Motion System: Geometry

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Motion System: Video

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Motion System: Build Process

• Procedural Rigging
• Referencing

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Motion System: Procedural Rigging

• Involves a substantial amount of code

• Fast iterations
• Reduces time by building common repeatable procedures
• Promotes universality via naming convention, behaviour and structure

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Motion System: Referencing

• Components (arm, leg, spine) are built mostly by hand

• Each component is referenced in order to build a complete character

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Film vs Games: Motion System

Potentially no difference
• Film
o Gives freedom to do what is needed for the animators
o Can be fairly complex
o Each character has its own motion system

• Games
o Usually limited bone count to what the deformation will be able to
achieve
o Motion system is often shared among multiple characters
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Film: Motion System

• Advantages
o Limited only by the tools
o Will often write custom tools
o Can be fairly complex

• Disadvantages
o Can be overly complex
o Hundreds of controllers
o Multiple ways to achieve the same/similar results

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Film: Motion System

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Games: Motion System

• Advantages
o Limited only by the tools
o Often, only what is needed is built into the rigs

• Disadvantages
o Engine restrictions
o Bone count

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Games: Motion System

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Deformations

Motion
Deformers Geometry
System

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Real Deformations

Motion
Deformers Deformers Deformers Geometry
System

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Deformations: Types

• Skeleton
• Pose space deformer (PSD)
• Cage deformer
• Muscle system

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Deformations: Skeleton

• Most common technique

• Vertex is weighted/attached to different joints

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Deformations: Skeleton

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Deformations: Skeleton

• Advantages
o Simple
o Fast

• Disadvantages
o Broad strokes
o Can be hard to have fine control
o Weight painting
o By itself does not provide enough quality for Film or VFX

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Deformations: Skeleton - Who Uses It

• Games - Maximum of 3-4 joints depending on engine limitations

• Feature Animation
• Visual FX

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Deformations: Pose Space Deformer

• Often applied after skeletal deformation

• Poses are stored as offsets in local/joint space
• Poses are sculpted

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Deformations: Pose Space Deformer

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Deformations: Pose Space Deformer

• Advantages
o Very art-directable

• Disadvantages
o Hard to maintain
o Can end up with hundreds of poses
o Expensive to evaluate
o Might require in-between poses
o Interpolation can give unexpected results

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Deformations: Pose Space Deformer - Who Uses It

• Visual FX - Heavy use of PSDs

• Feature Animation
• Games - Hardly use PSDs because of engine limitations

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Deformations: Cage Deformers - Types

• Lattice
• Clusters
• Wraps
• Wire
• Custom tools

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Deformations: Cage Deformers

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Deformations: Cage Deformers

• Advantages
o Allows for detailed control
o Can add detail to specific area of the rig

• Disadvantages
o Can make the rig complex
o Speed (can be very slow)
o Can be too expensive for game engines

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Deformations: Cage Deformers - Who Uses Them

• Feature Animation - Heavy use

• Visual FX - Heavy use

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Deformations: Muscle System

• Underlying muscular structure is constructed

• Skin slides on top of muscle system

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Deformations: Muscle System

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Deformations: Muscle System

• Advantages
o Physically realistic
o Allows for muscle dynamics

• Disadvantages
o Complicated
o Very time consuming setup
o Slow to compute
o Often too expensive for game engines

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Deformations: Muscle System - Who Uses It

• Visual FX - Heavy use

• Feature Animation - Uses simplified muscle system

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Face

• Significant difference in level of complexity between Film and Games

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Film: Face

• Large amount of time devoted to the face

• Complex and extensive systems
• Joint setups
• Blendshape setups
• Proprietary techniques

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Film: Face

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Games: Face

• Not as important as other areas of the character since often seen from
the back
• Mostly joint setups
• Few blendshapes
• Limited by the game engine

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Games: Face

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Hair

• One of the biggest differences between Film and Games

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Film: Hair

• Hair or Fur solvers

• Complex setups
• Posable by animators
• Heavily art-directed
• Slow computation

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Film: Hair

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Games: Hair

• Often short hair

• Geometry and texture based
• Very few actual hair setups

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Games: Hair

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Cloth

• Historically, very different approaches in Film and Games for cloth

• The gap is narrowing with latest game engines

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Film: Cloth

• Cloth solvers
• Complex setups
• Slow computation
• Often a whole team is dedicated and specializes in just cloth
• Glued-on clothing for secondary or far off characters

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Film: Cloth

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Games: Cloth

• Mostly glued-on clothing

• Geometry based
• Lately more complex real-time solutions

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Games: Cloth

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Dynamics

• Mostly used for secondary motion in both Film and Games

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Film: Dynamics

• Used for secondary motions

• Can be complex
o Large number of joints
o Collision with other objects
o Dynamics can be applied to geometry itself

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Games: Dynamics

• In-engine dynamics
• Used for secondary motion
• Usually limited to a few joints
• Ragdolls use full body dynamics

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Wrinkles

• Wrinkles add realism to clothing and/or body deformation

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Film: Wrinkles

• Clothing algorithm takes care of wrinkles by itself

• Facial
o BlendShape
o Compression based drivers
o Custom tools

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Games: Wrinkles

• Texture based
• Displacement map or Bump map
• Often used in clothing
• Joint rotation driven

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Future: Motion Systems

• Not huge changes

• Removal of stand-in geometry for real time deformation
• Newer techniques as developed by riggers around the world

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Future: Deformation

• Faster computers means more complex setups

• The more computers can handle, the more we put in
• Real-time deformation

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Questions?

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Thanks

Special Thanks to:

• Chad Moore
• Joe Van Den Heuvel
• Cameron Fielding
• Rob Vogt
• Larry Cutler
• Sandy Kao
• Sean Nolan
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