Started rigging my Finch for the wings open model, using the tutorial for the human rig and altering it as I went along, so rather then having a shoulder, elbow, wrist and hand I have a shoulder, wrist and what I'm calling a pinky joint for the last two, which I will have bending in individually. I then added on three more longer fingers joins that will help move the wing forwards and backwards.  When making the joint I didn't know what I wanted to do at first, so I created a control behind the wrist control and had it there until I decided that I just wanted the joint to turn forwards and backwards, so I eventually replaced it with another circle nurb that I will use for the bend, by doing this I don't know If I will create custom controls for the wings and instead might just restrict the rotate control instead for the animation.  When I had finally made the rig I realised also that the joints where extending outside the model so I had to re a-jus...

I made again some basic Matte paintings for the scene, that I might end up using in the final animation dependent on how much time I have or if I think the style doesn't suit the set when making the Pre-Viz. I like the first one for the side Matte, because it adds depth and I liked how the island and the ocean turned out as well, which I also think will work better when I figure out how to make the ocean appear blue in the render, as it keeps appearing white instead. I then experimented with lighting  because the basic lighting I had originally consisted of two lights, which was useful to testing lighting and shadows for the trees, but in the render made the set look too shiny and fake so I decided to test a sky dome and then a sky dome with the two lights, which I prefer more because the island is meant to appear hot, to suit the desert like conditions for the Saddleback.

Finished the main rig and connected the spine and the leg joins, which will serve as a base that I have now copied onto the other models and will adapt to suit what I need for the scene. So I will give them all head rigs as well, but only the one wing up and the T posing Finch will have arm extensions while the one with the wings down will only have the head rig. 

Finished the rig for the Saddleback, by with some help creating a control around the tortoise which I will then use to move the whole model and then make the tortoise walk separately which I will be testing next in a practice animation. I will probably have the neck extension on a different model and then switch out the two models during the Pre-Viz and see how it plays out, so I don't make the one rigged model to complicated.

Had some issues applying the texture to the trees because of the grid lines that keep appearing, but I managed to fix it finally, as well as make the trees darker because the last texture I used I felt it was too orange for the scene, so I decided to make them darker and accentuate the lines to give them more character, which I might make bolder for the final scene.

Re- designed the set for my animation as I didn't feel like it represented an island well enough. For now this is the one I will stick with for the Animatic but I think I might change it again as I still don't think its big enough to show the island being habitable for animals, but I wanted to have the extended front for the Finch's long talk up the beach towards the tree at the beginning of the animatic.  I will be re-doing the Matte paintings for the background and the side shot to suit the new set.

Starting rigging my Saddleback this will be the only tortoise that I will be rigging, as the Dome tortoise will have its neck animated separately as will this one, which is why the joins only extent to the tortoises legs. I haven't started skinning yet, but so far I'm happy with the rig and how its fits in the model, and I will only use it for a simple walk cycle.

Started Rigging the Finch model using Alan's human rig tutorial, making some adjustments as I go. I decided to make the hips lower down and extend the spine on this, because the feet move a lot, where as there isn't very much hip and chest movement in the animation. The first image is my first attempt which I re-stared to accommodate a foot ball rig incase I needed it later on, but this rig will also be the base one I will be copying onto my other models, adding on arm and head rigs onto the separate models as I go.