Updated Pipe Rig

I added 2 extra controllers to the rig, this meant I had to redo parts of the already existing ones, so luckily I didn't make all 8 yesterday.
 Here they all are now!

Rigging the Synth Overlord

Gabe had the idea that we should rig the cables for the Synth Overlord so they aren't fixed in the same position for the duration of the animation. I rebuilt the piping for the overlord so that they were straight and able to be repositioned; rather than being posed static.

I wasn't sure how I should do this, but after a while I decided to use a ribbon spine; as we'd been shown how to do this by Keat previously. I ended up making a few mistakes while building the rig, however I was able to complete the second pipe in less than 5 minutes. I'll leave it at 2 pipes for the moment and check with our head of 3D (Gabe) that it'll do what we need it to before I make anymore.

Beginning to Animate

Ready to animate!

Violin Case

So I rigged the violin case to open & close.

Whether or not I'll use this in my animation i'm unsure :^)

Rig Demo!

Really happy with how the rig turned out! I notice now that the shirt peeks through at 1 stage during the bend, but I'll either fix that up later or leave it as it is (since my character wont be doing that movement).

Updated the Demo!

Skinning

I started skinning a few days ago but never made any real progress. I now have a (simple) understanding of how weight painting works and what to do in order to achieve somewhat realistic results!

So far I have weighted the neck & head as well as the right arm, including hand & fingers.

Rigging Controls

Started adding controls to the rig, spent way too long making the rotate shape but I think it makes it look a lot cleaner.

Update: 30/09/2015

Didn't get much achieved today, I've improved the hands significantly and moved a few joints to better fit the character, rest of the day was spent watching tutorials.

Update: 1/10/2015

Finished the foot controls! It all works after only 1 or 2 hiccups (had a value set to -10 instead of 0).

Update: 5/10/2015

I was told I had done something wrong with the finger controls... after I spent the entire day making them! I'll restart tomorrow, a little frustrating but I'm learning something at least :).

Update 6/10/2015

Fixed the orientation on the fingers. I managed to do the controls for the fingers without a tutorial, so hopefully there is nothing wrong with them...

Rigging Skeleton