When movie-goers see flicks like Finding Nemo and Cars, they generally have NO idea what it takes, technically, to make the movies come alive and capture their attention for an hour and a half.

The DVDs often show a few 'making-of' features - to give you an idea of what they are doing. So, today, I'm going to do the same for you with a free character rig called 'Generi' - which I like to call 'Blue-Man'. This character was built specifically for Maya animation software (so, you'll need that if you want to play with the free rig).

Generi 'Blue-man' rig link



This little blue guy is great! He is like a puppet with strings ripe for the pullin', complete with full lip-sync capability! (I have to thank my friend Richard Morley for showing me where to find Generi-rig).

First, I had to scour the web for some movie sound-bytes that I can imagine the blue-man performing. Then I had to import the sound file into Maya.

Once I had the sound file imported, I began using the puppet controls (see figure 1) to animate the lips and mouth to correspond to the voice in the sound-byte. This is a time-consuming process, but very important for a believable performance.


figure 1 - Click here to see animation sample

After finalizing the lipsync, the rest of the body can be articulated to express emotion. (see figure 2)


figure 2 -- Click here to see animation sample

Once the motion has been edited and the details have been tweaked, it's time to add some lights and see how the scene looks with some realistic shadows. (see figure 3)


figure 3 -- Click here to see animation sample

I liked this blue guy so much and he was so easy to use, I decided to give it a try with another movie sound-byte. Can you guess which movie this came from?

This is the version before adding lights and shadows...

figure 4 -- Click here to see animation sample

After adding a spot light, it makes the mood change dramatically! Oh, and I added a hat from a different animation and it makes this guy look like a Smurf!


figure 5 -- Click here to see animation sample

Well, I hope you've enjoyed this animation article! This is the first of several 'How-we-did-that' kind of articles and we hope you come back to read them all. See you next time!

- Ryan Mininger