Rigging
Weight Painting
Weight painting the exterior armor was an interestering challenge as the metals had to be stiff without the underlying mesh clipping through
The collar was the most challenging part as it required a lot of fine tuning the weights between the various joints
Weight painting the center of gravity
Setting Driven Keys
I built the rig using a combination of 3 rigs; an IK, FK, and blend rig. The blend rig uses a set of driven keys to switch between the FK and IK rigs for greater control.
Animating the finger controls
Driven keys for each finger for fine tuned animation
Demo Animations
The eyes are rigged to follow a separate controller
In order to rig the sword, I have two meshes; one parented to the hilt while the other is parented to the hand