crane reference

Home video footage of a crane for reference which illustrates their ranges of motion quite nicely whilst pottering around on the ground. It's clear to see Cranes are not fast movers (at least these ones aren't) and amble along at their own pace. 

Clearly the most expressive part of the Crane is the neck and will be an important part of the rig and I have made a few observation based on these pieces of footage:

• The Cranes neck is able to rotate and pivot at any point.
• When the head moves around the body tends to stay still and when the body moves around the head stays still, as if it were locked onto something or like the two were disjointed.
• Thus poses and shapes created with the neck are not solely down to head movement, but on some occasions the head locks still and the body moves into position.
• When the crane bends down it pivots from the hips like a see-saw motion - on this occasion the back end stuck up as the head went down - perhaps the neck and spine have to remain fairly straight so the bird cant have its tail and head on the ground simoultaneously?
• They make horrible noises

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Crane Dance

Much of the same here, but with a little more interaction with each other. Wing flap similar motion to take off -they have a sense of weightlessness (obviously) and appear to defy gravity. This is good wingflap reference material as it goes through the ranges of motions and also shows how they tuck away - another aspect of the rig I shall have to consider. 

The legs go in a reverse direction to humans - the upper thigh is at a reverse angle to its shin, so that's something to look out for when thinking about its rigid walk cycle - it's legs remain pretty stiff despite the joint, so might look into ik stiffness to achieve this.   

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Key areas for consideration

1. the head and the body - the ability to lock one off and move the other to create pose (which is achievable through ik)
2. Having enough articulation in the neck areas to form those tight bends (geometry will have to be generous for decent enough deformation).
3. The root should be placed at the bottom of the neck/top of the back so the crane bends at this point.
4. The back itself appears quite rigid (I will look into some skeletal informaion to confirm this) so wont require a huge number of joints.
5. Legs are on backwards, walk cycle quite stiff and hip rather than knee reliant.

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Image Reference

Nice shot of the Cranes wing which gives some indication how the wings fold and the inclination of the lower leg area.

The neck of the background bird has retracted slightly into the body making it appear shorter and importantly fatter! The neck joint structure, i'm thinking will resemble a spinewave rig, with squash and stretch which maintains volume.

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Crane  Skull

Image of a Crane skull, the entire skeleton has eluded me for now but this gives some indication of the bone density thats present in the neck to allow all that movement.

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Bird Skeleton

Found this image of a bird skeleton, not sure of the species - doubt its a Crane, but looks fairly similar. The hip placement appears higher than the Cranes, but the back and ribcage are totally rigid like I suspected  in the first video reference. This will simplify the body rigging process.