Rosa

Goals:

• Rig an appealing child character to be the lead in a capstone film

• Adhere to the filmmaker’s schedule and specifications so the rig can fit seamlessly into the rest of the pipeline

I was asked by RIT senior Valeria Henao to be the rigging artist on her capstone film: La Primera Aventura. Rosa needed to be flexible and emotive, so Val could really showcase her animation skills on the film. As with all student films, time was a huge factor—I wanted to get this rig to her as fast as possible so she could start animating, but not cut any corners with the quality.

This was a great opportunity to put the Python scripts I’d been writing to good use! I was able to have a basic version of the rig with IK/FK switching for all of the limbs and spine, an advanced foot setup, and a layered, easy-pose hand setup done super quickly, because I had scripts ready to go for those things. Val was able to start animating passes with just the body rig while I worked on the face. The overalls were a challenge to get to sit right, and I ended up putting some additional joints into the rig to specifically drive the looser parts of the overalls for certain poses.

At the beginning of production, we didn’t know yet whether the film would be rendered in Maya or Unreal. Just in case she went real-time, I constructed the rig to be as UE-friendly as possible, so Rosa is joint-based and lightweight.

After delivering her in the Fall (with a quick round of revisions tailored to the specific acting required of the film), I didn’t see Rosa again until she was rendered out on the big screen in the Spring. The film was a delightful watch, and I’m honored to have been asked to work on it.

You can check out Valeria and her work (on this film and beyond) here!