Here you get to take pretty much whatever class(es) you want and hopefully pick up some job/life skills. Or, if you forget to turn in your homework like I do... things get murky.
So the rig we were mostly experimenting with this semester was pure FK. Basically you set up control objects on joints that don't render, and treat it like claymation in zero gravity. After the midterm I Frankensteined the top half of that rig with an IK (Inverse Kinetics; honestly no idea how to explain this one) rig at the center pelvis/waist joint and somehow broke the thumbs. Don't ask, I'm still not sure how I broke them.
The project had ups and downs to say the least, though the greatest down was trying to mimic a 2D movie in 3D. Aside from inconsistent scene staging, character scale, limb placement, and lighting (this last one is normal in all movies actually) and uhhh... well it's a terrible idea for a class project. Making up my own "inspired" material from a stolen source would have netted a project multitudes better than trying to copy frames and key frame/tween them.
Anyway, there will always be more excuses about things like painted weights (how joints influence the vector points--where the lines cross on the models), but this enough excuses, on with the material:
