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CBBC · 30+ character and creature rigs

Dennis and Gnasher Unleashed

Dennis and Gnasher Unleashed title art with the gang on bikes and scooters in a town street

For CBBC's CGI series Dennis and Gnasher Unleashed, I built more than 30 body and facial rigs for hero and background characters, with over 90% of them generated by my automated Python rig build system in Maya. The rigs included facial setups, bendy systems, FK/IK limbs and an automated sticky lips system. The series aired on CBBC in 2017.

Client
CBBC
Studio
Rigstore
Role
30+ character and creature rigs
Year
2016
Tech
Maya, Python

The challenge

Dennis and Gnasher Unleashed was a new CGI series for CBBC with a large cast and a quick turnaround. It needed over 30 rigs for hero and background characters, from Dennis and Gnasher to the hamster, the pig and the grown-ups. The animators also asked for a lot of new features. Built one by one on a tight schedule, features like these are hard to deliver and are not normally offered on deadlines this short.

Animated Dennis sitting at a desk with a stack of books in a bright classroom

What I did

I automated as much of each character build as I could, so that over 90% of the creature and character rigs came out of my Python rig build system.

  • Body and facial rigs for more than 30 characters, with facial setups, bendy systems and FK/IK limbs.
  • Automated new features the animators requested, so they were achievable on the schedule and fully stable.
  • A sticky lips system, which lets the lips stick together and peel apart as the mouth moves. It was automated in a few thousand lines of code and works with any facial setup: I select the mouth edge loop, and the script analyses the mouth, builds the setup and weights it, ready for use.

The sticky lips modules also added new maths, node and surface functions to my Python library.

Animated line-up of Dennis, Gnasher and friends in front of a red-brick building

The outcome

The series came out on CBBC in 2017, and the Guardian covered its CGI makeover. Because the builds were automated, the rigs had technology you would normally only see on a big-budget film production, with the speed and consistency a quick-turnaround show needs. The animators did an amazing job with them.

The Guardian on the new series ↗

Animated still of the children and Gnasher in a dim corridor facing a glowing red door
  • Dennis and Gnasher Unleashed title art with Dennis holding a tin can beside his friends
  • 3D render of Dennis running alongside Gnasher
  • 3D render of Gnasher lying upside down holding a long string of sausages
  • 3D render of Gnasher standing on his hind legs holding tin cans
  • 3D render of Gnasher riding a skateboard with his tongue out
  • 3D render of a girl doing a trick on a BMX bike with one leg kicked out
  • 3D render of Ruby, a girl with curly hair in a pink vest top and leggings, arms folded
  • 3D render of a girl in a wheelchair holding a tablet
  • 3D render of Dennis on a skateboard and a girl in a wheelchair, both in helmets, doing tricks
  • 3D render of a boy in a yellow beanie, glasses and green hoodie holding a snack
  • 3D render of a bearded man in a blue hoodie, shorts and hiking boots checking his watch
  • 3D render of a bearded man in a blue hoodie and hiking boots running towards the camera
  • 3D render of a chubby hamster grinning with large front teeth
  • 3D render of a chubby hamster standing upright and looking nervous
  • 3D render of two schoolboys in blue jumpers, one with glasses, standing side by side looking worried
  • 3D render of a grey pig with a pink snout and a spiked collar
  • 3D render of a grandmother in a black leather outfit cheering with her arms raised
  • 3D render of an elderly woman with large glasses and a tartan skirt holding a clipboard
  • 3D group render of Dennis, Gnasher and four friends, one in a wheelchair, posing together
  • 3D render of Dennis in his red and black striped jumper leaping mid-air, on a grey background
  • 3D render of Gnasher, a spiky black-furred dog, grinning widely with his paws forward, on a grey background
  • 3D render of Dennis, Gnasher and friends playing guitars and drums as a band
  • 3D render of a blond boy in a blue school jumper staggering under a tall stack of books
  • 3D render of a professor in a tweed suit with goggles on his head holding up a small gadget
  • Animated still of a boy with glasses and a blond boy in a sunlit classroom
  • Animated still of Dennis with Gnasher on his shoulders beside a thoughtful girl
  • Animated still of a scowling blond boy in a blue jumper with a group of children behind him

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