When Ki Studio contacted me to handle the rigs for the show at the RIZHAO Water Park in China, I was beyond excited. This project was particularly special because a significant portion of the animation would be done using motion capture, a first for me.

An Ambitious Project

The motion capture was handled by Mocaplab, one of the leading motion capture studios in France. Collaborating with Mocaplab made the rigging process relatively straightforward, thanks to their extensive experience and clear directives.

The Challenge

The main challenge was to enable animators to refine the motion capture animations. Motion capture records a keyframe for every frame, resulting in thousands of keyframes per animation sequence, which are cumbersome for animators to adjust.

Development

My approach was to create a secondary rig that was more animator-friendly. I then developed a tool to transfer the animation from the primary rig to this secondary rig. Once the rigs and the transfer tool were ready, another problem needed solving.

To address the overwhelming number of keyframes, I developed a second tool that allowed animators to create animation layers as needed on the animation controllers. These layers effectively masked the multiple keyframes, making it easier for animators to make corrections.

Cloth Simulation

I was also responsible for the cloth simulation on this project, which was entirely managed within 3ds Max.

A Second Project

I had the opportunity to work with the same team on a new, simpler project. Due to a more restricted budget, only one rig was created directly by Mocaplab. I then developed a script to add controllers and animation layers to this rig for manual adjustments.
This experience has significantly enhanced my skills in rigging for motion capture and developing tools to streamline the animation process, enabling me to tackle complex projects more efficiently.