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Channel 4, with Jellyfish Pictures · Snake and crocodile hero rigs

Prehistoric Megabeasts

Life-size CG prehistoric crocodile and Titanoboa lying on a paved plaza beside two presenters for scale

For Channel 4's documentary Prehistoric Megabeasts, I rigged two hero creatures in Maya at Jellyfish Pictures in early 2016: a Titanoboa snake and a giant crocodile. I built a path tool so animators could drive the snake along a curve, and gave the crocodile a muscle system of around a hundred muscles. The base rig took under a week and the muscles another week.

Client
Channel 4
Studio
Jellyfish Pictures
Role
Snake and crocodile hero rigs
Year
2016
Tech
Maya

The challenge

This Channel 4 documentary pitted Titanoboa, a 43-foot snake, against the giant crocodilians discovered in Colombia. I rigged both creatures at Jellyfish Pictures in early 2016. The turnaround was quick, so the rigs needed time-saving tools built in, and the crocodile's detailed model meant it had to deform as realistically as possible.

Giant snake coiled in a murky swamp among mangrove roots

What I did

  • Snake rig. My head setup with an FK/IK spline tail of four joint layers. The fourth was an additive layer that could follow a path, so animators could still add FK and IK animation on top.
  • Path tool. Animators selected a NURBS curve shaped to the path they wanted, and the tool attached the snake's additive layer to it. They could move the curve and set the snake's speed along it, without the bugs and crashes of Maya's path constraints. It saved hours, possibly days.
  • Crocodile rig. My quadruped system, with FK/IK limbs, bendy controls and squash and stretch. The twelve-joint FK/IK tail had its weighting projected from a tube for the smoothest shape.
  • Muscle system. Around a hundred muscles. The tail, legs and arms closely follow a real crocodile's, while the body muscles were placed more loosely to carry weight. I set the dynamics stiff, because crocodiles show very little jiggle.

The base rig took under a week, and the muscles another week.

Thick coils of the giant snake in murky green water

The outcome

Two hero rigs and one full muscle system, delivered for the Channel 4 programme. I made a walk cycle to test the muscles: the tail kept its volume far better than without them, the arms showed definition through the triceps and biceps as they swung, and when the crocodile slammed an arm down you could feel the weight through the muscle dynamics.

Crocodilian swimming near the surface above the coils of a giant snake, seen from underwater
  • Crocodile muscle rig in red shown in five views on black, side with translucent skin, three-quarter, side, front and top
  • Red crocodile muscles visible through a translucent dark skin mesh, side view
  • Crocodile muscle rig in red at a three-quarter angle, showing the leg and shoulder muscles
  • Crocodile muscle rig in red seen from above, with the muscles running down the tail
  • Crocodile muscle rig in red seen from the side, from head to tail tip
  • Crocodile muscle rig in red seen from the front, showing the chest and front leg muscles
  • Final composite of Titanoboa swimming through murky water
  • Final composite of the prehistoric crocodilian swimming head-on towards camera underwater
  • Final composite of the giant snake coiling around the crocodilian underwater
  • Final composite of the giant snake and crocodilian fighting in a mangrove swamp
  • Final composite of the snake wrapping the crocodilian in shallow swamp water
Prehistoric Megabeasts rig breakdown (Vimeo) · Hosted on Vimeo. Pressing play loads content from vimeo.com.

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