Custom Controllers

Hey everyone, Animation Girl here to talk about my custom controllers.

I just had to purchase Nicholas Dufresne's advanced DUIK tutorial when I saw the custom controllers he made. Sometimes having a visual aid is extremely handy.

DUIK is definitely a friendly program. There's a lot you can do with it and I have only scratched the surface. But these custom controllers are my jam.

I originally learned how to do these type of selections with a slider control. Which is basically the same thing with one huge exception. I'm blind.

It's just a slider with a number selection representing how many images you have. In the example above that would mean I would have 0-14 options to slide through in order to figure out which leg position I need. Originally, I thought to myself 'that's all right, I'll just write down a numbered cheat sheet' blah blah blah. And although that would have worked haphazardly, this is much better!

The slider controls here have a background image created using the individual images of my personalized characters. Now I can see which leg position I am selecting when I am trying to animate a walk cycle. Or I can animate a blink quickly because I can see which eye positions I'm selecting. I was even able to add head and chest rotations too!

And since these are custom controllers they are created by using my own artwork! So even though I used tiny images of the character herself, I could have just as easily used generic representations. But when it comes to working with an ensemble cast on an animated web series, I'm excited to see how these custom controllers keep me organized. I have given every character their own color and personalized icons in order to keep things clear and concise.

So much to do, so little time. Catch you next time!