After some tweaking I have managed to start fixing some of the more prominent issues the Finch skinning was having, one was re-distributing weights from the eyes and mouth that were creating the random jumps and glitches in the animation and another was removing weights from the Lumbar joint that was creating the twist in the head, that I was struggling to disjoin. Even though this Animation is short, it's making a different to the problems that I was having before, so will be trying to fix them in the other models later, but finally I think I'm nearly finished with Skinning and now need to start with the Pre-Viz.

Moved onto one of the Finch models and with the feet as they are the easiest feature to do, so far I'm happy with how it's going and despite the small errors that are still showing in the last video, I think I'm close to getting good movement from this Finch. As for the other models, I realised I don't think I will be able to get the feet moving in the exact way due to time restraints, so I will try and get them instead moving as closely as I can for each one so I don't have to spend as much time on this.

Some progress for the skinning of my Saddleback, I think at this point for the character I'm ready to move on because I'm not planning to show that much of the tortoises legs in the animation, so I need to start animating it to walk and move and place it within the set. I'm getting the hang of this skinning method, although it's taking me longer to finish, but I feel that the animation will turn out a lot better and I feel that I know what I'm doing compared to the second method where I felt I was winging it with the weight distribution.

After some feedback for my skinning I have decided to start again with it on all my models, using instead the first skinning method as it is more precise with the weight diving than using the brush. So far I have manage to divide up the weight for my tortoise and one of my Finch models, which I plan on finishing beforehand so I can get advice more progressing further with the skinning to make the other three models a lot faster. I like how it has turned out, especially since I have just divided up the weight my the joints it has already erased a lot of the issued I have before such as the tail feathers moving along with the feet on all my Finch models and the middle of my tortoise moving with the legs when I animated them. I still need to divide the weights up more priestly in the component editor, but I think I should be able to get it done a lot faster than before and move on as soon as possible.

A couple of Playblasts for my Finch Skinning, I think it's slowly coming along but Im still unsure if the skinning is getting better or if I'm making the movements unrealistic for the proportions, so I think I'm going to ask for some guidance before I continue so I don't ruin the skinning and see how far I want to take it.

Using what I learned from animating my saddle back i decided to try and transfer that over to my Dome tortoise, this one I find a lot more easier and might try and prepare this blend shape beforehand to transfer into the Pre-Viz, as then I can use the Dome tortoise to determine the size of the trees and the rest of the models. Even though this is just a quick Playblast I'm happy with how its turned out, I think I just need to add some animation to the tortoises face to make it more engaging in the final animation.

Starting skinning my Finches, again using the human tutorial as much as I can for the model and joints and trying to smooth out the animation as best I can. I'm still finding it easier with version 2 of the skinning methods, but I think I still have way to go with smoothing out the models, and will be trying to do this by animating the Finch in the positions i have laid out in my storyboard so I don't have to worry about those positions turning out warped in the Pre-Viz.

After using the second method for Skinning I tried to move onto the interactive bind skin to lay out the weights, unfortunately when I started to weight them out I found that the animation after the interactive bind skin began to mishaps the rig to the model, so rather than continue I think I might just stick to the first of the second rigging method I did and see if that will work, if not I will give it another go and see if I can make it work for me, but for now I think what I have done works best with the animation I will require for my piece.

a Started Animating the neck of my saddle back to see how I would have to animate and edit it to make the scenes work together. To achieve this I made blend shapes for the neck and made a new one for each movement, so one for the extension, so for the mouth opening and one for the neck pulling back.   The videos above show the different playblasts I had to take for the reaching up and for grabbing the leaf, with the top one being the edited video I complete in Premier Pro.  Because I needed the tortoise to grab and move the leaf I decided to make two separate models and divide up the actions, making the pause between the grabbing of the leaf the editing point to join the two actions together. I did find this hard at first, especially choreographing the different models and dividing up how each scene would go, I think from this for my future animating I might need to lay out a plan beforehand to figure out how the sequence will need to go. I used a blend ...

Practicing the neck extension with a tree to see how the models would hold up and look for the final animation. I only managed to get a playblast of the Saddleback, but the movements are very similar as I just used a blend-shape for them both and I think for the mouth I might make a separate shape for them to make it close and open

 When trying to start skinning I tried to use the first tutorial, which I found more difficult and frustrating because of the numerical element and trying to apply weight around my limited edge loops  for the leg, so after a few attempts I decided to try again on the second tutorial which I found easier because I can paint on the weights and see them instantly.  When trying the second skinning tutorial I had a few issues, mainly the model warping when I was removing all the weights apart from in the top section of the model, however I later found that it would return to normal when I increase the weight to one again. I think in the end I have managed to get the hang of it more and I have progressed further than  tutorial one, so Im gonna try and a-just them and fix them as best I can, but I still want to get them checked over before animating them.

These are the rigs for now on the models, I tried to keep them as similar as I could, while also adjusting them for each models. In the Pre-Viz I will mostly be experimenting trying to switch out each model for each scene and adjusting the movements so it doesn't look too obvious. For now I'm happy with how the models turned out, but I want to get them checked before I start skinning them.

Finished rigging up the head and arm rig for the model, again I used the tutorial for the human rig and adjusted it as I went along, so I have two joints for the jaw, but for the final thing I think I might create a blend shape for the beak and the mouth so they move in unison. For the arm rig I added more control shapes from the joins to I could move it back and forward, but didn't add in figure joints because I didn't know if they would all fit in the model and also I just wanted the top section of the wing to move so I don't think I would need them either.