Rigging MANIA

So after several (thousand) problems with Pohatu's rig, I decided to no longer just wing it and actually do some research on Pohatu. Come to find out, Youtube is filled with very informative tutorials on rigging! After two days of research and hours of trial and error, I finally got a functional rig for Pohatu.

I had done a test animation and fixed some more problems, but decided to take a break from the Bionicle project and revert to an old project that was my final for both Digital Sculpting and Texturing. I fully rigged him with controllers and semi-proper weighting and decided to do a quick and dirty walk animation. After about two hours, this is what I came up with:

It isn't without problems, but I am happy that I'm getting somewhere and that animation/rigging isn't as daunting as I had originally thought. Not saying I want to do rigging all of my life, but it is somewhat necessary for both this project and future projects if I ever decide to pose my character.

I made a goal list for this weekend saying things I need to do by Monday at midnight so that I can keep on track and not get too side-tracked.

1. Finish the high resolution model for Pohatu (this includes scratches and minute details)
2. Texture Pohatu
3. Fix the rig for the legs (There's a problem with the IK handles that cause the legs to do some funny business.
4. Research on importing bind pose and separate animations into UDK in the FBX format. This shouldn't take too long considering the documentation on UDK is phenomenal and has helped me several times, like with using sockets and how to create them. *

*I am using sockets to attach different masks to different characters. This way I only need 1 normal map and 1 specular map for each mask. The colors can be applied in UDK and by using sockets, the masks can attach to any model I so desire. The only problem is that there's an issue where the socket spawns well above the head even when the bone is in the mouth. I'll figure that out in my research.

I wont be posting until Monday when I have Pohatu completely finished. I'm sure you've seen enough IP to understand whats going on.