The Rigging Pipeline

In previous projects that I have been involved in the pipelining was ineffeicient but simple. First the model would be made early on. Once finalized, the UV'ing of the model and texturing before starting and binding the final rig. Even from here the animation would begin only when the rig had been completely done. One can clearly see that there are problems with this method.

Problem 1: Ineffeicient
In an ideal situation, you should be working at all times wherever you are in the pipeline. Sometimes due to the dependancy of some jobs in relation to others, this is not always possible. Hoevever by having to complete a model before rigging, having to complete a rig before animating etc, we soon see that we have alot of idle time for a great deal of the project. This is a waste of human resources and does not make the best use of the availible man power.

Problem 2: Restrictive
By having our work in a very modular style we lack the ability to go back in the pipeline. Once the model or the rig is finished then we can no longer go back to it. Lets say that some where down the timeline we decide to change a small element of the model whilst we had already reached animation phase of the project. We would have to ammend the model, redo the rig and reanimate the scene. This is not a viable option. The same goes with the texturing or the rigging or the lighting etc. We are unable to adapt or evolve our concepts, when evolution of a concept may be essential to the improvment of the final piece. (especially as more and more research is done)

Problem 3: Causes Rushing
We have already mentioned how each member of the pipeline is dependent on the task prior to them thus leaving ample amounts of idle time. However the flipside tio this is that when the task is assigned, we are each forced to work to a very immediate deadline. This means having to rush to complete your job and doing it 100% correctly in the first go. In my particular field this can be devestating since a rig concerns technical kinematic controls. Should there be a malfunction that may be discovered during animation (relativley close to the end of the project) then we would all be in a great deal of trouble.

With this in mind me and my group decided that we would be able to optimize both our efficiency and quality of work if we adopted some way of being able to work n our individual parts throughout the entirety of the project whist being able to update evryones project files to seamlessly integrate the newst 3D assets.