Kelsey Hall
2D Harmony Rigger
Summer Memories Rigs
Tight Knit Family
Tight Knit Family was the first to arrive in my tasks. At first I just needed to do the parents in the sweater, but then the kids came. Adding the time it took to complete this rig was about 7 work days, all 8 hours. This was like doing 3 character rigs with full turnarounds and asymmetrical design just add more time taken to rig the other side.
Summer Memories also had evening and night builds. Evening just added shadows but night changed colors and had shadows. The shadows had to be very specific for the show.
Mother Nature
A lot of animators said they wanted 'Summer Memory survivors' on shirts. I said I wanted 'Mother Nature survivor' on mine. This character started as a one off but then needed a full turnaround because she was showing up throughout the show. I don't need to tell you the amount of detail that this character has. It was a nightmare to rig taking me 5 work days and 2 and a half for the night version.
She was a mentor character for Jason, always there when he called for help. But, with her always glowing and the hair flowing in the wind animators were not happy to get a scene with her. I did my best to make it easier on the animators but it's very difficult to rig someone with so much details.
Mack
Mack was the start of the show, one who's mouth chart is incomplete because he never speaks. He has a gradient on his head and thank god it's just the head. I did mistake the blue on his head for a hat though, turns out it's his hair.
Master controls were really starting to be used in the studio at this point so every character needed a turnaround slider and blink slider at the very least. Main characters or ones who spoke would have mouth chart sliders. Head turn sliders would be given to main or side characters, incidentals didn't really need them but sometimes we added them anyway.
The lasertag redress I had to do with all the kids and it was quite a challenge to get the glows looking close to the design. I managed to get it perfect though the problem was the glove. I needed it in multiple drawing so animators could pose it without a headache.
I do want to know if there are any lasertag places that use glove instead of guns. How cool would that be to shoot lasers from the palm of your hand? You could be like Iron man.
The Pole, Lunchables & Sweet Tweets Rigs
Jack
Jack in the show is Santa Claus's son and the first main character for me to rig. I did mostly side or incidental characters so a main character made me put some elbow grease in it. The worse part was the stripes on his pants. Any kind of detail that lands on the joints can be a nightmare for both riggers and animators. At least it was just a white stripe this time.
Very muscly and douchey character rig but can have a lot of freedom in movement. just don't forget to move the white stripe with him.
Len
Len is an elf that has a little side story in the show. Simple in some places but still has all the controllers you need. The swirl elf shoes are not my favorite to rig but I did what I was able to.
This rig was also the base for learning Master Controls, the slider wizard and the grid wizard. I figured out how to use these one day when there was nothing to do. I asked my director if I had anything to work on and if not could I spend the day learning how to use Master Controls. He said go for it.
Pterodactyl
Lunchables was mostly live action with some animated segments. The Pterodactyl was the only character I did, everything else was simple props. This characters purpose was a lame dad joke as to why you can't hear it when she goes to the bathroom. The P is silent of course.
The most difficult part was the wings. The open wings were easy but when the character had them closed was a nightmare. I spent probably 5 minutes just looking at them, thinking of every possible way I could rig this. I believe they turned out great though it would have been easier without the added lines of detail.
Bitsy
Sweet Tweets was a quick show to do for me, though I was in the background for a news article for it. I tell ya rigging with a camera behind you can make you feel self-conscious. These characters are very simple so the rig is also very simple. Bitsy is definitely a cute character, though I wonder what he looks like without the hood?
Sweet Tweets became a show after it's depute on Youtube. Yeti Farm made a few shorts for preschoolers and it's got very cute jingles. This show came and went for me as there weren't very many rigs needed for the show so I was whisked away to Alpha Betas pilot very quick.
Pete the Cat Rigs
Kit Starfire Ship
Kit Starfire ship is the biggest prop to scale that I've done. This ship not only needed to fit passengers, it had to take off and fly threw space dodging asteroids, land and then open the back to get out. It had a lot of views and poses to rig up.
Though I didn't have the time to make it very detailed I at least split the details on the engine and landing gear. Making it easier not only for me posing the rig, but also the animators making it fly all over the place.
Shark Character
Even though this shark isn't that detailed and is just a background character, I still had a lot of fun making this build. This is one of the few builds that uses the Kinematic Output nodes in the Deformation for the body.
The Kinematic Output nodes helps this shark swim through the waters by moving the tail fin, belly, gills and body all at once in one Deformation. This makes animating it much easier.
Postman Bill
Postman Bill was the first to get the Kinematic Output treatment but with more drawings than the Shark. Of course you can't deform a deformer sadly so not all drawings can deform. Thankfully he's just a background character so he doesn't need all the bells and whistles.
This character had some difficulties building the bag and shirt but it was really nice to build a character for a change. For Pete the Cat I did almost all the props for the show so rigging a character from time to time was fun to do.
This base was used for many redresses in future episodes to make other characters, that puts a smile on my face whenever I see him.
Goldie
My first ever character rig for the show. Goldie is Pete's pet gold fish, he mostly blows bubbles and swims around the fish bowl. He's usually always in the background whenever we find ourselves in Pete's room.
I wanted to include this here to show how far I've come to get to where I am. Goldie isn't perfect or very detailed however, this rig was the start and I can't not have it here.
Crab Character
This cute fella is ready to scurry across the sandy beach, just be careful of his claws. This rig has two sets of arms for posing. Short ones for his usual movement, and long ones to steal your bag of chips and run of with them. The first time I saw this character I called dibs.
Another fun character for me to rig, I made the mouth moveable as an extra for the animators to have fun with. The claws are the most satisfying part for me. I got the pivot point just right to open and close perfectly. I don't know why I love it, but I just do.