Technical Art
for Neo Cab
Overview
I developed our 2D master character rig for Neo Cab. A “rig” is like a digital puppet made of a hierarchical set of dozens of “bones”, with layered images attached. We use this rig to animate every aspect of our characters- it’s what makes Vincent’s (our Art Director) hand-painted character art feel alive.
Our main goal was for our pax (passengers, in the parlance of rideshare drivers) to visibly express their emotions and certain reactions during their conversations with Lina.
Our main goal was for our pax (passengers, in the parlance of rideshare drivers) to visibly express their emotions and certain reactions during their conversations with Lina.
We also wanted the pax to constantly move, or idle, so they don’t feel static.
I developed our master rig through lots of trial and error. The bones are positioned on the face and body in specific areas so we can make the character feel like it has depth and life.
Meshes and weights are also very important to our rigs. Converting an asset to a mesh and binding bones to that mesh allows us to deform/stretch it freely. This is how we manipulate the eyebrows, eyelids, face, body, hair, and mouth (the hardest one!).
Meshes and weights are also very important to our rigs. Converting an asset to a mesh and binding bones to that mesh allows us to deform/stretch it freely. This is how we manipulate the eyebrows, eyelids, face, body, hair, and mouth (the hardest one!).
We wanted our characters to be capable of “acting” with their face and their body language, independently, so we developed a skeleton with a few different bone sets. For example, the character’s face may read as ‘happy’, but their body reads as 'drunk’… and we need to be able to transition between all these possible states as the story requires. Spine lets you set up various tracks so you can layer animations in Unity.
We also intentionally override certain bones when we want to interrupt an ongoing idle or emote with a time-sensitive react animation.
We established a custom constraint system so we’re able to move each character’s head with one master bone. These constraints also enable us to parallax parts of their face, adding a feeling of depth to an otherwise 2D character.
We established a custom constraint system so we’re able to move each character’s head with one master bone. These constraints also enable us to parallax parts of their face, adding a feeling of depth to an otherwise 2D character.
Here's a time-lapse video of me working through a complete pax rig: