Laura: http://www.megaupload.com/?d=LPSO801P
Play with it, and tell me if you can break it. :D
Only thing left for me to do is set up blendshapes annddd a manip for the fingers. ^^

Ryan: hey there, i just downloaded the rig but the skeleton isn't attached to the body, i don't know how to attach them together ?!?! :S

Laura:I thought, once I'd uploaded it, that I'd forgotten to skin it~ I'll do that in the morning before I go to work. xD But, does the rig move okay without being skinned? :3

Ryan:yeah the rig seemed to move about alright =)

Laura:Ah, awesome. ♥ I'll pop up a mostly weight painted version tomorrow night. Work all weekend means no time to do uni work. ><

With any luck, the way I've been sorting my skinning recently, it won't need an awful lot of painting, so should be relatively fast to set up. ^^ Blendshapes will take a wee while though. Does it talk, or just make faces?

Ryan:it makes faces and does a scary growl in one of the shots, heres a link to the face expressions of the character

hey laura, just a quick question for you. In terms of the modelling process before rigging, does all the geometry have to be attached or can i just go to mesh->combine?? I was wondering because the other character we have has the head seperate from the body at the moment and it's going to be a pain to join the geometry of the head and body together, so i just wanted to know if by using 'combine' will it still allow the rigging to work properly?? hope this makes sense, i'm not good at explaining stuff lol

Laura: Um, I suppose it'll be more of a problem for painting weights? I'm basically gonna do exactly the same rig, but with more fingers for Summer. So, you don't have to worry about having her head attached until it's done? I can build the rig around the model without the head attached, and it'll work out alright, but skinning it without it being attached will probably look a tad weird, as her neck mesh bits might trip out when the spine moves. I can't really tell until it happens though. Could give it a go?

Ryan:hmmm, it'll prob be best if i just attach it then, i was kinda hoping to cut out some work for myself but it doesnt seem worth the risk in the long run, thanks

Laura:It has just occurred to me that the panda doesn't have eyelids.. So it's gonna take a little working out to get it to blink..

Ryan:yeah me and karen realised that the other day, we figured we'd just model them in and give the rig back to you if thats cool?

Laura:D'you want me to finish this one up, or wait til you've done the eyelids on it? 'Cause I'll have to repaint the weights around the face, and re-do the blendshapes if I start those. :)

Ryan:hhm just finish everything except for doing the face and blendshapes, then we'll add the eyelids and give it back to you so you can properly work on the face without having to redo what you've already done, yay or nay?

Laura: Sounds gooood. ^^ I'll skin it now, and pop it on here for you. I'll paint weights for it all. I'm fairly sure I'll be able to transfer them across to another model. ^^