Phew! It’s been a while. I’ve been very much in lurk mode due to other projects, work life, cats, y’know the dealio. With my current workload wiped off my plate I decided to go back to the grindstone and completely rework my 3d rigged fluffies for some new animations I’d like to work on. Day after day I keep coming back to Blender and my skills have improved a fair amount since last time, so with the model in a usable state I’d like to share some renders of it!
Maybe you remember my old rigs from a pair of animation tests back in the past. Although they were a lot of fun to work on and the results were entertaining to watch, the rig itself is all kinds of messy. Poor topology, awful rigging that made it a pain to use, and although the fluffies certainly have a unique quality to them it’s not exactly what I was going for in my mind.
With this, I’d like to introduce Fluffrig V2: This Time, They’re Cute!
“Hewwo nicest hoomin! Wan’ pway?”
A marked difference from the old model, this little guy uses fur particles instead of models for the body hair, the tail and mane, allowing me to load it up with a bunch of different and easy-to-recolour hairstyles so that there can be a bunch of different looks. These ones are using what I consider the “default” is for these fluffies, with thick short hair and straight manes and tails.
I kept the big doll eyes from the old model, gave it much bigger, more pronounced cheeks, and really tried to emphasise more toy-like proportions with tiny front hooves and legs and much bigger hindlegs. They’re fatter, rounder and so much more punchable than the old ones!
“Nobody wuv stoopid poopie dummeh fwuffy…”
The old rig was such a goddamn mess that simple things like laying the fluffies down, rotating them around or splaying their legs out (Very important for when you want to flatten the little bastards!) was a real pain. The IK was set up all wrong so you really had to try to wrangle them into position - not a problem with the new one! Sort of! Relatively speaking!
“Hooway! Fwuffy can’t wait to pway wiv new bwuddahs and sissies!”
Ultimately, I want to be able to release this rig for you guys gratis. There’s still a few problems I want to iron out and I want to put it through its paces with a quick animation really soon, but it’s well on its way to being usable. I’m loading it up with tons of custom shape keys for expressions and premade poses for people who just want to do still renders, put them in different environments and so on. Although I’m usually pretty quiet I’m always around - somewhere - and enjoying all the things you guys are putting out! Always inspiring!
And don’t worry. These little things don’t get to stay quite so intact for long…