Hello everyone!
I wanted to share with you guys this project of mine in hope the dialogue inspire all of us to do geat things
Basically my first objective is to do an amazing still shot of a little witch riding her broom. In a style reminiscent to"my neighbor totoro" but without leaving the 3D world and of course with a personal touch into it.
Once this shot is completed I may do a small animation I have in mind.

Right now I feel I don't want to continue giving details to the model until I define the rig. The main issue is because I am not too proficient with the riging tools in Softimage so I feel I will like to create the basic rig before I continue giving details to the model.

Since my first objective is to do a still image I thought to use the CDK biped rig. Which as you see in the image give me a lot of bones to start working with. Now, I am wondering what is the best way to proceed in polishing the results, as pretty much all the junctions (shoulders, knees, elbows) need to be worked on. I have seen some tutorials in which painting weights is heavily used for the rigs. Is it not better to just add bones to control the deformations ( for example under the armpit) I should point that my background include a heavy dose of rigging in lightwave a software where adding bones tend to be the most elegant solution.

Any advice or comment wil be greatly appreciated!

Very cute character,I like her a lot:)

I would suggest you to finish the model first,and then rig it.
Keep it up!

Hello everyone,
A continuation on my previous post to update my progress on this project.
Basically I completed the texturing and modeling of Lilya, a little witch I hope soon will be able to place in a more interesting environment.
My next step is to create a still frame depicting her world.

Now I am wondering what is the most efficient way to accomplish posing her in position, do I need to create a complete rig just to place the character in a pose? It sounds a bit overkill to me. Nonetheless since I have no better idea to accomplish this I will go ahead with the rigging.

Now, I am wondering what is the best way to proceed in polishing the results, as pretty much all the junctions (shoulders, knees, elbows) need to be worked on. I have seen some tutorials in which painting weights is heavily used for the rigs. Is it not better to just add bones to control the deformations ( for example under the armpit) I should point that my background include a heavy dose of rigging in Lightwave a software where adding bones tend to be the most elegant solution.

Any advice or comment wil be greatly appreciated!

Moderator edit: Merged your new topic with the original one - HB

If you have zbrush you can rig in there for single poses/stills, its very easy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmury2eT_io

You can also do some sort of posing in Mudbox but i found that very tricky, otherwise yeah you're stuck with "proper" rigging i'm afraid.
And i'm no expert on that - not at all - but i seems to me that if you want a single pose you would use a simple skeleton and just paint the weights to suit that pose, would seem fastest to me.

Ok just read your first post better: as for detailing you character i'd say go ahead without being to concerned over topology, you can always fix that later. It's model first topology later!

Hi Guys!
A quick update....

In my strugle to find an efficient solution to rigging in softimage (remember guys I make this project to learn new stuff in general). I found a quite famous solution: Gear. Amazing tool! absolutely fantastic. I mixed the final rig with a half simulated dress. basic the top of the dress is deformed with envelops while the bottom with syflex. I am pretty happy with the result so right now I am working in the accessories for my still shot. However, I will be involved in a professional project for a while so my little witch will have to wait T_T.