Well, it's been 10 months, I guess it's time for another blog post update! A lot has happened since September last year. After narrowly missing out a job at Animal Logic studios in October 2015 (damn you Paul!), I was lucky enough to be followed up and offered a position as a Junior Rigger in January of 2016. So, I packed up my bags and moved 1000km down south from our suburban family home in Brisbane, to an inner city flatshare in Sydney.
Animal Logic is truly an amazing place to work. Relaxed atmosphere, worthwhile and challenging projects, and best of all everyone - especially the crew on the rigging team - are an absolute pleasure to work alongside. Each day is just as fantastic as the last. The only real shock thus far has been the steep learning curve, which is definitely isn't a bad thing. Coming from an amateur background, where I'd mostly hand built rigging components in Maya and done nearly everything manually, I was unprepared for just how code based and automated the rigging pipeline is at Animal Logic. Creating something by hand is nearly unheard of unless for prototyping purposes. Anything that needs to be built should be written in python using the custom built API so that it can easily be reused or extended upon in future. Iteration is key - the API is designed so that the workflow becomes much more flexible, and isn't just a linear process from joint placement through to skinning that can lead to catastrophe during production if complicated rig changes are requested or the existing geometry is updated.
Needless to say my fledgling python scripting abilities have had ample opportunity to grow, and my eyes have been opened to how a real world rigging pipeline should operate. As week pass I feel myself falling deeper into the world of python programming and automation, which is simultaneously both mind boggling and mind numbingly exciting.
Animal Logic is truly an amazing place to work. Relaxed atmosphere, worthwhile and challenging projects, and best of all everyone - especially the crew on the rigging team - are an absolute pleasure to work alongside. Each day is just as fantastic as the last. The only real shock thus far has been the steep learning curve, which is definitely isn't a bad thing. Coming from an amateur background, where I'd mostly hand built rigging components in Maya and done nearly everything manually, I was unprepared for just how code based and automated the rigging pipeline is at Animal Logic. Creating something by hand is nearly unheard of unless for prototyping purposes. Anything that needs to be built should be written in python using the custom built API so that it can easily be reused or extended upon in future. Iteration is key - the API is designed so that the workflow becomes much more flexible, and isn't just a linear process from joint placement through to skinning that can lead to catastrophe during production if complicated rig changes are requested or the existing geometry is updated.
Needless to say my fledgling python scripting abilities have had ample opportunity to grow, and my eyes have been opened to how a real world rigging pipeline should operate. As week pass I feel myself falling deeper into the world of python programming and automation, which is simultaneously both mind boggling and mind numbingly exciting.
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