Anim: Abby's Rig Exercise Stress Test! (nude exclusive) (Patreon)

Trying something new!

Building universal Flashimate character rigs so I don't have to make a new rig for/hand-draw every weekly animation.

First test of the front view: Jumping Jacks!

They test the full body + give Abby some much needed exercise!

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Let's try something I haven't done in a while and go on a rant, mostly cuz this is kinda important. So, as some of you may/may not know, when I animate, I don't normally go the traditional route of drawing every rough frame, then going over every frame and drawing the lines of said frames, and then filling in the colors.

Rather, I do the rough animation

Then create a set of assets

then clean and color those assets once I've made sure the animation and assets are working how I want them to

And I've been doing this for a while because I personally don't like doing animation cleanup, line art, and/or coloring. Plus, it allows me to make alts by swapping out assets with an alternate line drawing/coloring (i.e. topless or Nabby versions).

The downside to this approach is that these assets are usually "custom:" I can't take, say, for example, the head from Abby getting tentacle-fed by Nabby, and place it in the net animation because the tentacle in Abby's mouth is drawn as part of that "head" asset. I'd have to re-draw said head without the tentacle, and do the requisite re-shading/re-coloring. Even then, because the asset isn't designed for Abby's perspective in the net, it would look a little off. So, every rig so far has been "custom." One-off usage to never be used again, unless that animation needs to be re-rendered/re-distributed.

However I started working on a new animation:

And Abby was doing so many things (turning her head, different hands, different bodies and limbs) that I realized this animation would be so intensive, I'd basically need an entire suite of assets just for Abby alone! At that point, I started wondering:

"Well, why not just make a universal rig?"

A universal rig is basically just that. A library of assets compiled like a puppet in such a way that you can apply the puppet to any situation and it will have either a matching asset, or a matching combination of assets that you can slot it in anywhere. The most famous example in recent memory are the "My little Pony" rigs, which, once fans figured out how they worked, were deconstructed to make a near infinite number of costom OC ponies.

Universal rigs have their downsides too. As alluded to earlier, there're only so many poses and expressions a universal rig can account for, on creation. Especially in 2D, where perspectives and lines are locked, unlike 3D renders. If you have a pose or expression that rig doesn't already account for (like a closed/lidded/angry eye), you'll have to create it. And, on the front end, its a LOT of time spent creating assets and connecting them together in the right hierarchy (i.e. shoulder controls the arm and hand, while sitting behind them so the seam doesn't show). And this is before testing it to make sure the rig even works!

So, previously, it's been such a massive time sink that it just hasn't been worth it to create them...

...until now. Where I want to do something more intensive, while still hitting my Thursday deadlines, without stressing myself out too much. I also want to get back into making Abby/Nabby comics (specifically interactive anicomics) and I can't do that if I'm frame-by-framing everything and/or composing/inking them the same way too.

So I started building a universal Abby Rig:

Basically a file to house all of Abby's assets for use in any way I see fit, as well s create custom assets for later usage. For example, as you can see in the above gif, naked versions as well. Theoretically, I can have different states for her clothing to create different outfits, or different states for her ears, and face to create different versions of her, like Tabby. Or sub out her legs entirely for MermAbby! And, of course, the obvious: recolor all her assets and change out the eyes to get Nabby (who is the next planned rig):

The thing is...

this isn't my first attempt at making an Abby rig:

So why didn't she be come a thing? 

Well, part of it is that I didn't know entirely what I was doing the way I do now. I was making assets, and not really thinking about how those assets would interact with each other, or how they would cover for other assets. I was also trying to avoid having to remake/re-drawing assets as much as possible, but not designing them in a way that made that step avoidable (see: the breasts in the three-quarter front view). So the rig might have worked, but I would have been very frustrated with it.

The other reason is that, as you may/may not have noticed, Abby (and by extension Nabby) has been going through a bit of a design shift. Her eyes have gotten bigger inside her head, and her boobs have shrank to give more attention to her ass. 

I, too, lament the loss of her boobage, but I think this new design accents her figure more, and communicates something I was unintentionally going for until it was communicated by many of you: "cute, funny and sexy." And I think that's worth it.

Another reason that the first rig didn't become a thing is because I wasn't testing as I went along. I made all the assets, assumed they would work and became frustrated when I realized they wouldn't. To that end, I'm trying to make a habit of building a little, stress testing what I've made, making adjustments, and then building the next piece.

With the front view built, how do you test that? In my opinion, with jumping jacks!

Seriously! They test all the major pivot points (the shoulders and thighs, and the elbows/knees/wrists/ankles if you do it right), to see if everything is where it needs to be. 

So how did Abby do?

Well, I found out:

• the shoulders and thighs were not pivoting the right way.
• I needed another hand to make her arm movements seem natural, and another foot so when she hopped, her feet weren't locked.
• I also needed more facial assets, because the "happy smile" didn't fit the personality of her character
• I hadn't anchored her back hair floof properly, preventing me from animating it properly

But overall, animating jumping jacks wasn't as much of a pain as it could have been, and the additional hand, feet and facial assets slotted in very nicely, which is good, and means a mostly successful front rig. 

Next step? the 3 quarters and then side rigs, and their tests. 

It also means that, for a while, lewd animations are going to be on pause while I figure this out. That's not to say that I won't be doing lewd things (that's what the suggestions and image sequences are for), just that things like ani-loops and game overs will be on pause so I'm not splitting my time. But I do think it'll be worth the investment going forward.

If nothing else, we should be getting some fun animations out of these for the foreseeable future! 

catcha over yonder!
-Saunter!