Hands as characters: designing for a large scale pipeline using limited characteristics

Abstract

This thesis concentrates on hands and their production as concerns a larger-scale pipeline with multiple secondary or tertiary characters. It establishes a platform from which many unique hands can be produced from a single, rigged hand. Emphasis is given to automating a large amount of the rigging and sculpting processes through use of high and low-level user interfaces so users of varying skill can use this thesis effectively. Systems for sculpting the hand and animating the hand are created for their own specific purposes and linked together through the interface to create a tool for modeling a new hand from an existing mesh, having the new hand automatically rigged for animation and ready to use with only minor adjustments by the user. A system is developed conclusively that allows for the efficient mass production of tertiary character assets. Unique hands are quickly and correctly created with the ability to connect them to digital characters. This method can be applied not only to hands, but other parts of characters as well. Eventually full secondary or tertiary characters can be created using this method of production.