Yoonseo(Dave) Choi works on 3D animation and rigging of assets and characters.
Riggers in the 3D world are hero in the shadows who bind the world together in a middle ground.
My creative works focus on rigging of characters and objects in 3D world. I initially studied architecture in undergrad and gained experience in how to research independently, gather knowledges, and corporate technicality into creative form. Architecture did not turn out to be a career I would want to pursue; immediately after, I dived into world of 3D animation and found rigging as an intriguing and beautiful piece of work in the pipeline.
When I first put my foot into the world of creating 3D animation, I tried on creating my own short 3D animation. I created story from scratch, then move into design of characters, storyboarding. Later in process I modeled character in 3D and rigged it, so I can animate. After animating, I dealt with lighting, texturing, and sound to complete the first 3D animation created from scratch. After all that work, I reflected on what interests me most in the process of creating a new world; rigging and lighting design came to me as interesting area to explore. Lighting was something I have done in the field of architecture and theater, so it came to me as something I can handle easily. I could approach rigging as easy as I could with lighting. Joint building system is type of an architecture; it requires laying foundation, creating root, and building connections to create a stable piece of art that can be used. Area that I can find interest and pick up skills quickly was rigging.
I look for ways to expand my view and to understand creating motions for characters or objects. Rigging is to create bone and muscles for everything in the 3D world, and depends on how it is rigged, it opens and limits possibilities for the characters; another factor I put into consideration is on clarity of rigs and convenience for animators. At the end of the day, animators are the one that puts brain and mind into the character, so they come alive. If the controls for the body are complicated to operate, the brain can go haywire.
As I dive into the industry, I would want to learn more on creating rigs and set ups that I have not yet thought of or seen in environments I have studied in. Ever since I started to learn about rigging, almost always learning it came down to myself on weather I can fully understand the steps of other riggers have taken and make it mine. I gained knowledge through following other’s steps and learned them quickly using Maya, and fortunately, some of my previous experiences in coding allowed me to utilize the MEL and Python scripting functions in Maya.
Skills
- Autodesk Maya
- rigging
- animation
- Rhinoceros 5
- Adobe Photoshop
- Adobe illustrator
- Adobe Indesign
- Adobe Preimere
- Substance Painter
- Isadora
- Houdini
- ZBrush