Beartraps. I had the model done and UVed back in spring semester, so all I had to do this semester was rig it (simple, couple joints and a controller with extra attributes for closing the jaws). I also did a quick pass at an animation to show what I basically wanted before I passed it off to Charlie. When a dodo comes into contact with the cluster a beartrap will pop into the air, clamp down, and disappear. That way the player can tell how many 'uses' are left in the trap of the initial four at a glance. The textures (as well as those for the rest of the traps) in game were done by our Lead Producer, Jesse.
The imaginatively named 'Boot on a Wheel' trap. Christine did the initial model back in the spring. I just touched it up a bit to reduce the poly count, smooth out the normals, and add on the stand. The UV layout went quickly, but this was probably the most complex rig I've ever made. I parented a polygon to a NURBS curve. AMAZING. Did the animation on this one myself. The boot kicks when a dodo walks in front of it and the slowly ratchets back into the starting position. Truly an animation to be envied by Walt Disney himself.
It is a cannon. Originally this trap was supposed to be some sort of dart trap. I convinced the team to change it to a cannon because the game is largely about knocking dodos from one trap into another, and darts don't provide a lot of kinetic force. Also, a cannonball plowing through a bunch of birds like a bowling ball is a much more entertaining image. The shape of the barrel went through a number of iterations very quickly. I created a single base mesh, gave it more/less flare and length, then put them all into a blend shape and played with the sliders until I got a result I liked. The wheels on the rig rotate independently in case we decide that it needs to turn in the game further down the line. The big arrow allows the barrel of the cannon to 'jump' off of the frame when the cannon fires. I had assigned the animations to Dave when he requested it, but wound up finishing them myself after he took a medical leave of absence from school. Hopefully he gets better soon.
The flytrap is the latest trap to be designed and created, and one of my favorites. It also probably holds the record among our assets for the number of people who worked on it. Our designer, Troy, did the initial model. Charlie and I made some tweaks to the teeth and the topology. I UVed it and Becky textured the main part of it. The leaves at the base I just tore off a shrub I'd modeled and Jesse textured. Then I rigged it, animated it, and took it through MotionBuilder into Unity. The rig and animations were a lot more interesting to do for the flytrap than they were for the other traps. While the others could usually get away with being still while idle, I had this one bob back and forth a bit like it was breathing. Also, since we didn't want this one to reset and be ready to use again within a second or two, it needed to have a second idle animation for when it is sleeping after a meal and transitional animations between the idles and the attack..
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