Butterfly Update

Once Tegan had finished modeling the body of the butterfly, we could move on to the next step in preparing the character for animation: rigging. Like our cute character, the butterfly character's rigging process involves weight-painted skeletal controls, as well as custom GUI controls. In this case, luckily, the control rig was much simpler in concept and proved to be easier to create.

In terms of skeletal controls, all that needed to be done for the butterfly was create bones for each of the legs, and then spend about an hour painting the weights for those bones. We determined early on with our prototype butterfly that the majority of the insect's motion would not be skeleton-based, and we would save time in animation later on by coming up with alternatives.

To give the butterfly the ability to bend its body, we chose to use a non-linear bend deformer. This gave us a natural range of motion, as well as allowed the entire body bend to be controlled with one element. The butterfly's antennae were given the same treatment. The wings of the butterfly were more complex, and required multiple varieties of deformers in order to achieve the flapping motion we wanted, but as we had solved this problem with our earlier model, we simply needed to reproduce the functionality we had created for our prototype butterfly.

In addition to rigging, completing the butterfly model gave us the chance to develop some basic materials for the character. For now, the butterfly wings have been given a limited texture to inform their shape, and we have experimented with different bump-mapping techniques in order to give the flat wings the impression of depth as they move through the air. We have also applied some basic materials to the butterfly's body and eyes to give it a more iridescent look.

Early Butterfly Material Tests

 Although the butterfly has a limited amount of screen-time planned for our short film, the character's involvement is just as important as Herbil or Behemoth, and with the completion of its control rig, we now have our first character fully prepared for animation!