Keith Bruns
Principal/Lead Technical Artist/Animator
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Puzzle Bobble VR: Vacation Odyssey (Rigging of all characters and props)

Responsible for rigging for all of the characters and props in the game. Came up with some novel ways to control the 2D based eyes, and spikes that had to always be visible by the camera while still looking attached to the body.

Bub jump animation shown with/out rig. Model by: Dave Hansan, Anim by: Nolan Roberson

Bub jump animation shown with/out rig. Model by: Dave Hansan, Anim by: Nolan Roberson

The rig setup. Model by Dave Hansan

The rig setup. Model by Dave Hansan

To stick with the IP style, all of the eyes/lids needed to be 2D planes, but animate properly in 3D. This was the stylesheet to describe the main looks of the eye poses. The pupils were shrunk down in later revisions.

To stick with the IP style, all of the eyes/lids needed to be 2D planes, but animate properly in 3D. This was the stylesheet to describe the main looks of the eye poses. The pupils were shrunk down in later revisions.

I used the typical eye lookat constraint for joints, but then drove the UV offset of the pupil texture from those rotations. You can see the UV offset values in blue on the left.

I used the typical eye lookat constraint for joints, but then drove the UV offset of the pupil texture from those rotations. You can see the UV offset values in blue on the left.

The eye textures, they were individual images, combined for this page. They were made into a flipbook that could be used in Maya and UE4 with a custom controller on the eye lookat handle, that fed values onto an attribute on a joint imported into UE4.

The eye textures, they were individual images, combined for this page. They were made into a flipbook that could be used in Maya and UE4 with a custom controller on the eye lookat handle, that fed values onto an attribute on a joint imported into UE4.

Showing the basic operation of the eyelids and pupils. This was an interesting setup using joints, UV offsets, and texture flipbooks to create.

Showing the basic operation of the eyelids and pupils. This was an interesting setup using joints, UV offsets, and texture flipbooks to create.

Straight curves were used to visualize the line between the pupils and they look-at controller. Two layers of geometry made up the eyes, one for pupil, one for lids. In UE, they were combined into on mesh and material.

Straight curves were used to visualize the line between the pupils and they look-at controller. Two layers of geometry made up the eyes, one for pupil, one for lids. In UE, they were combined into on mesh and material.

Originally I made brow controls just to see if the IP holder would approve, they did not. They wanted 2D eyelid movement only, I only include this, because I thought it looked cool and would have been nice to use.

Originally I made brow controls just to see if the IP holder would approve, they did not. They wanted 2D eyelid movement only, I only include this, because I thought it looked cool and would have been nice to use.

The spikes had to appear to slide along the surface of the model since they always had to be visible from the front of the character no matter which way it was facing or posed. Additional rigging: Alexander Lee

The spikes had to appear to slide along the surface of the model since they always had to be visible from the front of the character no matter which way it was facing or posed. Additional rigging: Alexander Lee

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