Hi everybody,

First of all, I'd like to say what a great honour it is to be the first to post a message in the Animation forum

I hope it's okay to post here, as I am looking for the feedback from animators. I am trying to improve my mechanical rigging skills by trying to rig a beam engine (early type of steam engine)



I was wondering if anyone could share their thoughts on what they would like to see in a rig if it was used at a production level for animation?
I was thinking of perhaps a little interface where one can increase or decrease the speed. However then I took it a little further and thought, that perhaps there might also be a need to animate the wheel and i.e beam independently (although it would not be scientifically acurate) or at least perhaps need the option to do something like that.

As I said, I would very much appreciate if people could have a look and share their views so that I can try to make the best suitable and flexible rig. A video of the beam engine in action can be viewed here:




There is also a more interactive simplified animation here

Video of Beam Engine

Thank you very much in advance for any ideas or input.

Angelika

I personally think that keeping the rig controls simple is the key. You are trying to match a real world object and therefor the controls should be the same for your rig. Splitting out the control of the beam and wheel would probably be a feature that wouldn't be needed. Just because there is one controller, doesn't mean that all the other stuff going on under the hood won't be impressive.

Once this is done, you could experiment with other controls that possibly make it more cartoony, exagerated or even less rigid.

cheers
Andrew

Hi Andrew,

Thank you for your feedback. I guess the convoluted idea of splitting up controls came out of a fear that the rig won't be impressive enough. I hope that my solution won't be too simplistic and be as impressive as you say, while still of course being userfriendly.

Thanks again
Angelika

Hey Angelika
Don't worry about it being too simplistic... when you get it cranking it will look impressive!
cheers
Andrew

Hi Angelika,

Thought I'd jump in and add my two cents. I agree with what Andrew said about keeping it as simple as possible. Assuming all the parts on your engine increase in speed proportionaly to each other, you won't need to separate them too much, if at all. A good animator will get some personality out of it just by varying the timing of his or her keys. Also, from my own experience, I'll take a simple rig with "enough" controls over one with all sorts of fancy controls any day. By the way, the model looks great.

Hope that helps,
Alan