Being in DNEG there are a plethora of resources that you get to explore and dive right into. At the start of my apprenticeship I took the opportunity to expand my knowledge learning about human anatomy.
This is mainly because most of the character work, for digital-double works (replicating and introducing CG characters onto the film sequence) or any type of character development work, revolves around building the anatomical features such as skeleton and muscles to directly impact the character’s mesh to create a more “life-like” deformation when animating extreme range of motions.
Although it would seem like having to replicate the exact same anatomical features would be the desired workflow, it can become really cumbersome to replicate every single joints, bone structures and muscle structures as the character model will end up becoming extremely heavy to try to replicate.
Functional Anatomy
There are so many things to consider when incorporating or dealing with anatomical features especially in the more complex creature work that is currently taking place in DNEG. A presentation on ‘Functional Anatomy’ helped enable creature artists to become even more mindful on the function and influences of prominent bodily features.
Joint Placements
It is very important to consider and take a substantial amount of time to make sure that the joints are placed correctly. This is vital to be able to place the joints correctly in the first place to ensure that the rig is stable and will deform correctly. Once you animate using the version of the rig that was passed down to the animator, and the rig updates it will end up changing the animation and will behave differently.
Skinning Guides
I briefly looked at the the skinning guides for different sections of the body mainly around the upper body and the arms and legs. Evaluating and improving ways to deform and preserve the volume of the mesh.
Body Types
Another extra bit of information around body types were looked into. To get a better understanding of the frame and muscular build of the three main body types:
ericka's blog 