Life changes and career beginnings:

I am aware that I have been setting a trend of late.. Posting once or twice and then throwing myself to the wind for a few months of inactivity where the blog is concerned. I will do my best over the coming months to amend this and also to tie up the loose ends I am leaving in regards to the progress of various projects I have talked about.

So, life changes. Sadly a long term relationship that turned long distance came to a close not too long ago. Emotional set back aside, it has for now at least cleared my schedule of many or any breaks for the foreseeable future. I really have been needing to finally get onto the career ladder and maybe the life of a singleton is needed for now to help that happen.

To balance the scale, the plus side of recent weeks is that I have been busy beavering away on a trial project for a new start up Indie game company in my area. I am in good standing with them and stand a really good chance of being hired as an Animator/rigger. There will be a lot of opportunities to learn along the way and I am really looking forward to getting stuck into what will essential feel like I am being paid to learn. Which beyond awesome!

Rigs! Yes rigs, I have used a number of them in the past and whereas up till now the only rig I have ever truly loved using was the Animation Mentor "Stewart" rig, now we have a new creator in the mix. I'd like to welcome to the scene, Joe Daniels. Joe has taken time to create an awesome rig pack for Maya animators. The rig consists of no less then 12 human rigs of both sexes and every body type. Now you may be thinking at first glance they don't look too dissimilar to other mannequin style rigs that have gone before..but, these ones are really very simple to use and quick to pose and repose for a great animation work flow and are incredibly affordable. The controls are simple and easy to use and don't have convoluted controls for a simple move and rotate. Something I have found with other rigs is that 2 controls are needed just for that..which can really increase posing time.

I have opted to try out the Muscular rigs as I am all about the action sequences. I received the Dex, Herc and Ugg rigs all for $10! So I salute you Joe and look forward to your future works.

A link a video of the rigs in action and how to buy them yourself can be found bellow

Body Mechanics Rigs
Joe's blog

I will upload some test videos of these rigs shortly!