LogInBrought to life using Krita, DaVinci Resolve, Blender, and Geometry Nodes.
Chris Jones, a legendary Character Artist regarded by many as the greatest 3D Animator and Rigger of all time, has recently revisited his 2012 human hand rig, presenting version 2.0 of the setup, which, frankly speaking, can rival even real-life videos with its astonishing realism.
Dubbed Hand Test II, the new rig looks incomprehensibly complex and detailed, allowing one to set up jaw-dropping hand animations with unparalleled fluidity and a wide range of movement. Notably, Chris developed this rig without using photos, scans, or motion capture, instead utilizing Krita, DaVinci Resolve, Blender, and the latter's Geometry Nodes.
"Textures were painted from scratch with the help of some newly sculpted skin, which I baked to displacement images for use as tiles/stamps in Krita," Chris explained. "After laying down a base texture I drew in finer wrinkles to help direct the pore flow, in something of a repeat of my handprints painting marathon, but for the rest of the hand and arm. Deeper wrinkles and veins were sculpted and added to the layers in Krita for further editing."
"I've also reworked the proportions of the hand rig and mesh, which prompted several reworks of the tendons as well, which I have somewhat expanded upon since their initial incarnation. Since they rely on Shrinkwap, each muscle, tendon, and bone has to maintain close proximity to the skin at all times while articulating and conforming to all the corrective shapes, male and female variants, and proportional changes without breaking through the surface and causing a crater, or disappearing beneath it.
And here's the first iteration of the rig, showcased by the maestro all the way back in 2012:
With his new project, Chris not only showcased what is arguably one of the best hand rigs ever made but also broke his long-standing tradition of disappearing from the internet for at least half a year, only to reemerge with one more mind-blowing creation. Just last month, the artist also unveiled Glitter, a hyperrealistic female face animation crafted using Blender and Krita:
And prior to that, Chris demonstrated Tendons, an extremely flexible hand rig, which, as we can now see, is a slightly undercooked Hand Test II:
Also, check out some of Chris' earlier works:
We highly encourage you to visit the author's YouTube channel, Twitter page, and official website to check out more of Chris' awesome digital character projects.
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