GAME 2325 — Character Setup
Welcome. Over the semester you will design a character, model it, build a skeleton, bind the mesh,
and construct a complete animation rig — then export it to Unity and prove it works.
The character is yours. The rig is yours. By the end of the term you will have something for your
reel that you built from the concept drawing up.
This semester's schedule
Fifteen class sessions. Week 14 is Thanksgiving Break — no class.
Everything is scheduled around that. Week 2 is a double session covering both topology and
asset setup, which means there is no in-class modeling studio and your modeling happens on your
own time. Nothing is assigned over the break.
| Weeks 1–13 | All content, all six milestones |
| Week 14 | Thanksgiving Break — no class |
| Week 15 | Export |
| Week 16 | Demonstration and critique |
Three things to understand from day one
1. A rig is built for a shot.
No rig covers every situation. Characters get re-rigged for a different shot, a different engine,
or a different animator. In Week 1 you will write a rig spec — a list of what your character
must be able to do — and everything you build after that is measured against it. In Week 16 your
final demonstration is screened against that same list.
2. A rig is an interface for producing joint transforms.
When your character goes into a game engine, only three things travel with it: joints, skin
weights, and blendShapes. Your controls, constraints, IK handles, and driven keys do not. They
exist to help you produce good joint motion, and then they stay behind. This will make more sense
every week until Week 15, when you export a rig and watch it happen.
3. Everything resolves to one node.
Every asset — character, prop, environment, vehicle — lives in its own file and has exactly one
top node. This is not tidiness. It is what makes it possible to put four characters and six props
in a single shot without the scene becoming unusable.
How the course is built
Class exercises use a practice mesh provided for you, so nothing in class waits on your own model
being finished. Your projects use your own character.
| Unit | Weeks | What you build |
|---|---|---|
| Unit 1 — Pipeline, Design, and Model | 1–3 | Concept, design sheet, rig spec, model, first joints |
| Unit 2 — Skeleton and Deformation | 4–7 | Complete skeleton, skin weights, correctives |
| Unit 3 — The Rig | 8–13 | Controls, limbs, spine, hands, head, appendages, props |
| Unit 4 — Delivery | 15–16 | Export, verification, demonstration, critique |
Weeks
| Week 1 · Pipeline and Rig Spec | Week 6 · Skin Weights II | Week 11 · Arms and Hands |
| Week 2 · Topology + Asset Setup | Week 7 · BlendShapes | Week 12 · Neck, Head, Jaw |
| Week 3 · Skeletons I | Week 8 · Rig Architecture | Week 13 · Appendages and Props |
| Week 4 · Skeletons II | Week 9 · Legs and Feet | Week 14 — Break |
| Week 5 · Binding | Week 10 · Spine | Week 15 · Export |
| Week 16 · Demonstration |
Grading — 1000 points
| Category | Points |
|---|---|
| Projects | 450 |
| Project 1 — Concept, Design & Rig Spec | 75 |
| Project 2 — Character Model | 125 |
| Project 3 — Skeleton & Naming | 100 |
| Project 4 — Bind & Deform | 150 |
| Project 5 Milestones | 300 |
| M1 — MSR, Main, Hips · Week 8 | 40 |
| M2 — Legs and Feet · Week 9 | 55 |
| M3 — Spine · Week 10 | 50 |
| M4 — Arms and Hands · Week 11 | 55 |
| M5 — Neck, Head, Jaw · Week 12 | 40 |
| M6 — Appendages and Props · Week 13 | 60 |
| Final | 150 |
| Export Verification | 50 |
| Demonstration animation | 75 |
| Critique | 25 |
| Exercises | 100 |
| Total | 1000 |
Letter grade: 900–1000 A · 800–899 B · 700–799 C · 600–699 D · below 600 F
Exercises
| Exercise | Week | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Bouncing Ball Rig | 1 | 10 |
| 2 | The Topology Puzzle, the Muscle, and the Repair | 2 | 15 |
| 3 | Registered Image Planes and the Asset File | 2 | 5 |
| 4 | Spine and Leg Chains | 3 | 10 |
| 5 | Arms, Hands, and the Mirror | 4 | 10 |
| 6 | Bind and Weight an Arm | 5 | 15 |
| 7 | Repair and Range of Motion | 6 | 15 |
| 8 | The Elbow Corrective | 7 | 10 |
| 9 | Reference, Export, Diagnose | 15 | 10 |
Weeks 8–13 have no separate exercise — in those weeks the in-class build is a Project 5
milestone, graded there.
Revisions
Project 2 requires a revision. Your model is submitted and revised in Week 3. A weak model
causes problems for the next ten weeks, so this is a gate, not a grade. The turnaround is tight
this semester — start modeling in Week 2.
The six milestones are graded pass/revise. Each must pass before the next is accepted, because
each is built on the one before it. You cannot build an arm rig on a broken spine.
Reference pages
Keep these open all semester.
- Naming Convention — enforced from Week 1, graded on every submission
- Rig Spec Checklist — the form you fill out in Week 1
- Engine Legality Checklist — what makes a skeleton exportable
- Vocabulary — every term in the course, by week
- Resources — tutorials and documentation by subject
What you need
- Maya, with the FBX export plugin enabled
- Unity — the primary export target for this course
- Unreal — covered in Week 15 as a second path
- Photoshop or equivalent, for your design sheet
- A character. You may bring one forward from Storyboard & Concept Development, or design a new
one in Week 1.
Recommended reading: Jason Osipa, Stop Staring: Facial Modeling and Animation Done Right —
the reference for the optional facial work in Week 12.