hey everyone! so I’m currently working on a cartoon version of my cat. his name is Syd.
he’s still a WIP of course, but his form is almost done. i was hoping to animate him. i’m just not sure if i should use just armature bones, or shape keys. anyone have any recommendations or tutorials?
Shape keys would be best for the face, but an armature is necessary for limbs. I’ve tried rigging animal limbs with shape keys before, it just doesn’t work. I like your idea so far.
@ Owldude - thanks! he’s actually already rigged. shape keys and mesh deform mod on the face, very simple armature for the rest of the body. i just need to figure out how to create a proper walk cycle.
@ Utopia780 - thanks for the comments! the “texture” is just a filter i applied in compositing to the render, for fun mostly. it’s not an actual texture. i’ll be getting rid of it for the next animation though.
@ Zakousky - thanks! i really appreciate the positive comments.
@ sunnyfield - you know, i don’t know what he does. haven’t really thought about it. but! you have given me a wonderful idea, which is to take my Space Alien character and the Syd cat character and create a short story with them. he’s mostly anthropomorphic, but i plan to have him do some cat-like things to bridge the gap.
here’s an update - working on texturing UVs now. first time i’ve ever painted a UV texture for a character!