final character files, villain

Here is the final villain model that I will be referencing into the finished animated scenes.

In the image at the top you will see the model and the reference editor box open, what this allows me to do is to take a 'base file', in this case my characters, and reference them into the scene I am going to animate. This is very much like importing a character but the key difference is that once a character is imported it cant be changed or updated. Whereas with a 'referenced' charcater, work can still be continuing with the modelling,rigging etc, and once that character is complete you simply take the finished file and save over the old character file replacing it with the newer version.

This is how we decided to use the characters as the modelling process takes a very long time. so for me to be able to animate I had to be given basic versions of the characters, and then as more work was done on them I would gradually be given updated versions untill I had the finished pieces. This allowed me to start animating as soon as the basic rigs were ready and would also mean that once I had the final versions and referenced them into the scene they wouldnt loose any of the animation I had keyed onto the character, because the referenced model keeps all the animation values I keyed on the older model, the only thing that gets updates is the asthetics of the model.

This is the process I used for all the characters, the set and props. As all of these aspects where still being modelled and textured right up to the day when we started rendering.

So I had individual base files for all the characters, the set and props. Above are turn arounds and screen shots of the final characters in thier base files, Also anything which is changed with the characters must be done in the base files and not in the scene itself, as maya will be loading in the base file for reference so changes made outside of this file would not filter through into the other scenes that character was in.