Documentation of the development of a new rig for a
new interactive animation system. This system allows more freedom than previous versions as well as interactions with the 3D physics engine in the unity game engine. The feet
and pelvis are mapped to respond to inputs from omnidirectional joysticks. Users are able to switch between controlling the rig's pelvis and legs with the use of a finite state machine.
new interactive animation system. This system allows more freedom than previous versions as well as interactions with the 3D physics engine in the unity game engine. The feet
and pelvis are mapped to respond to inputs from omnidirectional joysticks. Users are able to switch between controlling the rig's pelvis and legs with the use of a finite state machine.
Early Experimentation with Unity's physics engine affecting the feet of the rig. 2021
I began developing these rigs to explore my interests in the creation and performance of community and belonging through the possibility of player created animations in response to a digital world with strong relations to the physical world. In Uzma Rizvi's Archeological Paper "Crafting resonance: Empathy and belonging in ancient Rajasthan" she wrote of a concept she termed "embodied response to space". Her paper set me down the path to this project. Moving through space with the rig I have developed takes some getting used to. After a user has created a pattern of movement that works - they can save and loop that animation to move through digital space. This is displayed in 'Creating a walk cycle'.
Creating a walk cycle, 2021
Rig Development Documentation, 2021
Crafting, gathering materials, and climbing, are all activities conspicuously present in modern-day action-adventure RPG games, while domestic tasks are less present. My goal is to create a rig robust enough to explore the creation of social situations and crafting systems that play on traditional RPG mechanics and challenge users through the replacement of button presses with more more involved relationships with controllers. With this rig moving through a virtual space can be more tactile but much more cumbersome. The "embodied response to space" is two-fold, in the user's hands on a controller, and the reactions to the demands of the software. The project is in a work in progress!
