Animal • Bat

[PiSONG]

The little tyke finally resurfaced.


A little history.

Back when I started to really push my animal designs, I created a fat frog. He quickly became the face of PiSONG DESIGN, and subsequently I was quite recognized for this frog alone. Normally that would rock, however I didn't really like the frog all that much. So I set about creating another little critter to be the face of PiSONG DESIGN. A Bat.


I put a heap of thought and planning into his design, as I wanted to create a critter people look at and instantly think "that's so cool" not based on technical marvel, but instead, sense of character, and attitude.

Everything was going fine with the design, untill I hit a stump, I; nor no one else could really get this guy rigged. Bat wings due to the membrane stretched between the wing bones, causes a great deal of trouble when it comes to building a controllable rig. So the bat ended up stored in a folder, doomed to be forgotten about, as what good is a cool character, when you can't move, or pose him?


Now recently, a company because quite interested in my little bat, which forced me to pull him out and think about taking him further. I got in contact with Lisa Lewis, who had originally tried to rig the bat (among many others) and this time around, she has successfully started to build, one of the most amazing rigs I've ever used. The membrane beleive it or not is controlled via weights. And holy crap it works like silk! This rig, whilst looking simple, and very simple to control, has the most technically amazing weights I've ever seen, or used.


So, the point of all this? The bat is re-entering WIP stage. The model is essentially complete, as are some of the surfaces (I like his skin) however I need to do a ton of renders with this guy for marketing reasons, for my company, and another so I figured I'd start a new thread.

here's the first re-render, and some shots of the rig Lisa built.

[kurv]

PiSong, this is an amazing character man!!

Would you ask Lisa if she has time to pop over and give us a quick tutorial on how she did this..? did she use dynamics on the web..?

Thanks for sharing it!!

[Michael Marcondes]

What a wonderfull setup and model!
How did she rig that?Did she used cloth?

[PiSONG]

I'll ask and see if she has time to come over.

No cloth yet, its all controled via weights. I have no clue how it works, its incredibly. The membrane deforms perfectly. all with articulate weights

[aurora]

Yeah Batty, He was/is one of my fav's, next to the penguin (which before you ask, I'm still working on getting permission to use a song for the short with him and his friends!)
I really like the bottom shot that shows his fangs! He looks incredible with the fangs.
I second the desire to get Lisa to write a quick tut on this rig. She's one H@!! of an artist all around. That Davey is one lucky guy

[ilusiondigital]

Pisong this is a real cooool character, congratulations

[Teyon]

Cool. Where've you been hiding these days? Looks great so far. Keep up the good work.