I’m dealing with contractors that are rigging models now, and I was thinking, what would be the best way to illustrate the problems I find?
“Just look at the shoulders” is too vague. Saying “the knee looks funny when it’s bent” is a little better but not much. It seems like it’d be most useful to create simple markers to show when, where and how the rig is broken. How can I do that?
What I ended up deciding to do was create a test animation (if one didn’t already exist) and scrub through it to spot issues. Whenever I spot an issue, I do the following:
- Take a screenshot.
- Note the frame number.
- In Photoshop, circle the problem area.
- Next to the problem area, write down the frame number.
- Below the problem area, write a brief description of the issue. (if needed)
From there, I send the contractor the separate screenshots I take as well as the MAX file with the test animation. That way they can open up the MAX file, scrub to the correct frame, look at the screenshot, find the problem and quickly fix it. It minimizes the amount of written communication by being direct, visual and simple. Saves me time, saves them time.
This is the best I’ve got so far. Anyone else have any ideas? 🙂