~ Amaterasu ~
I've always had a special place in my heart for the Shinto pantheon. When we announced Amaterasu, I was quite excited to work on her. Going from wearing stiff armor on her base to this skin where she wears light cloth was the challenge for this skin. There were no new bones planned for this skin and no animation change, so the solution was all in the weighting.
Special Thanks
Skin Name: Shining Heaven
Date Released: 02.02.2016
Character Modeler: Davis Zunon
Bone Count: 71
Returning to Amaterasu was quite a treat. Though due to her other skins, she did not require any new bones or controls. I was actually surprised at how well her skirt rode on the existing animations despite the skirt from the previous skin having different dimentions.
Special Thanks
Skin Name: Sun Kissed
Date Released: 9.8.2017
Character Modeler: Trevor Hennington
Bone Count: 72
Amaterasu's Skin 6 had two new animations though I chose to show off the recall animation due to her looking like she was in a photoshoot, and it looked quite fun.
Special Thanks
Skin Name: Sun Kissed
Date Released: 9.8.2017
Character Modeler: Trevor Hennington
Bone Count: 72
~ Raijin ~
Raijin was the first god that I built from scratch as a new addition to SMITE and the Shinto Pantheon. I built up his skeleton and secondary controls. His drums were fun to figure out how to build and work with animation to see how he would use them. The hard part was dealing with his proportions. Raijin's torso is very stocky and curvs back to have a lot of mass on his pectoral and middle back hung over his stomach wrap, so weighting his spine and clavicles was the most challenging part of his rig. Weighting the armor straps on to of the body was much easier once the core of the body was figured out.
Special Thanks
Skin Name: N/A
Date Released: 16.02.2016
Character Modeler: Weston Reid
Bone Count: 57
This rocker skin was rather fun to work on. After Raijin's base, he was much simpler to work on. It was also interesting because I was working on this skin at the same time that I was constructing the skeleton of the base god. The only trouble for this skin came when changes were made to the base god.
Special Thanks
Skin Name: Devil Horns
Date Released: 16.02.2016
Character Modeler: Rashad Foux
Bone Count: 52
The skin Thunder's roar was a more armored and decorated version of the base god Raijin. While Raijin was still fresh in my mind after the release. The base Raijin had a lot of exposed skin, so having the chest armor appear solid and firm while deforming like the base skin without the use of new bones was a challenge. The challenge area I felt was the same as the base, dealing with his large chest and back muscles and having it work well with the skin texture was an ordeal.
Special Thanks
Skin Name: Thunder's Roar
Date Released: 15.03.2016
Character Modeler: David Riddle
Bone Count: 56
~ Susano ~
This particular Susano skin was for the ESports team Luminosity. The interesting part for this skin was weighting the shirt to follow the body and existing skin beneath.
Special Thanks
Skin Name: Luminosity
Date Released: 05.11.2016
Character Modeler: Greg Britt
Bone Count: 79
I chose this animation because I felt it showed of the shoulder movement and weighting.
Special Thanks:
Skin Name: Luminosity
Date Released: 05.11.2016
Character Modeler: Greg Britt
Bone Count: 79
~ Kuzenbo ~
I hopped on late to the Kuzenbo - NeNeKappa train and took over weighting and rigging the NeNeKappa. I had a lot of fun building his face and weighting it to make all sorts of expressions. I'm relieved that we kept the stretchy limbs throughout the production of this guy. Weighting him so that he could fully withdraw into his shell was a lot of fun and a challenge in itself.
Special Thanks
Skin Name: N/A
Date Released: 14.02.2017
Character Modeler: Jack Banta
Bone Count: 58
I have a particular soft spot for the NeNeKappa's death animations. In this specific death animation, I loved his twirl and withdrawl into his shell. I also liked how his expression changes before he jumps backwards.
Special Thanks
Skin Name: N/A
Date Released: 14.02.2017
Character Modeler: Jack Banta
Bone Count: 58
~ Izanami ~
To make this skin work, the modeler and I worked together to get the exact pivot of the joints so we could align the wire joints correctly. I wanted to ensure that the wires never twisted out of place, so while the meat of the arm was weighted to the twist bones we have, I weighted the wires themselves to the respective base limbs.
Special Thanks
Skin Name: Dreadful Doll
Date Released: 14.03.2017
Character Modeler: Greg Britt
Bone Count: 66
I chose to show this EMOTE animation because it was unique to this skin and I really like the expressions of her face during this animation.
Special Thanks
Skin Name: Dreadful Doll
Date Released: 14.03.2017
Character Modeler: Greg Britt
Bone Count: 66
All images Copyright 2015 Beaudion and VixenRigs - Images may not be reproduced or used without permission from Veronica Beaudion or VixenRigs.
