I’ve run into the same issue I’ve had on previous projects in trying to decide at which point to pose the characters: before or after draping in Marvelous Designer. I’ve learned that, in industry, most characters are created in T- or A-pose and then the fabric is rigged by a specialist afterwards. Since I obviously don’t have access to that service and it would be a huge undertaking to learn that skillset, I’ve decided to pose before my final Marvelous export.

I quickly posed the characters using ZBrush mannequins to get an idea of how they should interact. I don’t love the idea of learning how to rig, so I started out testing automated rigging and posing in Mixamo. However, I ran into all sorts of issues with the skin weights being incorrectly applied and couldn’t figure out a way to adjust them within Maya’s rigging system. This worked great as a test – I even pulled the poses into MD and re-draped the characters to see what they’d look like – but I believe I’ll have to head back to the drawing board and rig them from scratch for the final.

I’ve also started thinking about accessories and additions I can add to both characters, specifically weaponry for the skeleton and jewelry/tools for the necromancer. These are mainly from my trip to the British Museum where I kept an eye out for fitting pieces!