Moom character pose #1

In order to familiarise ourselves with the Moom character rig in preparation for the walk cycles and character action sequences, we were asked to replicate a series of dynamic superhero poses using the rig's control objects.

I, of course, chose the greatest and most highly respected superhero of all time.

(Image from http://fuckyeahflashgordon.tumblr.com)

GORDON'S ALIVE!!!

Erm. Yes. Ahem.

It's an interesting pose that I thought would be quite fun (or possibly an absolute nightmare) to replicate. It's quite a basic pose but there are some quite interesting angles going on in the hips and legs.

Breaking down the pose into a basic skeleton demonstrates the angles and lines a little more clearly, making it a little easier to understand what each limb is doing. His hips are slanted in favour of the left (our right) leg - where most of his weight is. The shoulders slightly counter that angle, tilting on the opposite direction to maintain balance, with his arm high and outstretched. His front knee is raised very high and pointing slightly outwards - you can't even see much of the thigh behind it.

The torso is quite interesting - he's leaning back but looking straight at the camera. His neck is probably craned forward to maintain eye contact. He should be careful - he'll seriously strain his neck if he ain't careful.

It's certainly not brilliant, but I had a lot of fun with it! It's interesting trying to replicate such ridiculous muscular characters with a rig as lanky and weedy as this fellow - he has a lot more torso and less leggage than Flash Gordon. There are, unfortunately, some limitations with the rig - you can achieve most things if you play around with it enough, but there aren't individual controls for each section of limb which can make really fine-tuning the angles of things like the shins or forearms a bit difficult. 

There are some issues with the angle of the front arm - I couldn't find a way to sort of foreshorten it without the elbow bending, so it's not quite as dynamic as the original. His knee isn't quite as high as I'd have liked, and the angle of his shin is a bit wrong - it should be pointing inwards, but as said previously there is a limit to the amount of control you're given. I'm sure that if I'd played around with it enough I could have figured something out, but at this stage I'm just trying to familiarise myself with the rig at a fairly basic level.

That's not to say I'm complaining though - for all its minor limitations the rig really is quite amazing. What you can do with it is absolutely incredible - the foot controls and hips, especially.