Methods and systems for generating an animation control rig including posing of non-rigid areas

Abstract

In an embodiment, an animator is provided with an indication when a model's component such as a joint or limb is being moved or twisted in a way that would be unnatural and cause unusual stress on the model component. For example, as a shoulder joint is stressed by moving an arm in an extreme position a yellow bar or coloring of the shoulder, arm or other component can grow increasingly bright and shift to red just before a breaking point is reached. An animator can choose to go past the breaking point and the breaking can be modeled and incorporated into the animation.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A computer-implemented method for generating an animation control rig configured to manipulate a non-rigid portion of a digital character, the method comprising:
 associating a control shape with the non-rigid portion of the digital character;   accepting a signal from a user input control to move the control shape to specify a new pose for the non-rigid portion of the digital character;   traversing a hierarchical node graph representing a plurality of animation control points associated with the new pose;   identifying a plurality of nodes that are implicated in moving the digital character to the new pose; and   using the implicated nodes to display the new pose for the non-rigid portion of the digital character.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the digital character includes a skeleton, wherein the control shape is adapted to handle an area of motion. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the non-rigid portion includes a belly. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the non-rigid portion includes a tail. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the non-rigid portion includes lips. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 5 , wherein the non-rigid portion includes a face. 
     
     
         7 . An apparatus including a processor configured to perform the actions recited in  claim 1 . 
     
     
         8 . One or more non-transitory processor-readable media including instructions executable by one or more processors to perform the actions recited in  claim 1 .