Krikey worked with Audubon to bring the Wingspan tabletop game into AR. The 3D art team was tasked to translate the paintings from Natalia Rojas and Ana Maria Martinez in the original board game into 3D.

It was a cool project for me to figure out how to rig wings, and how to keep everything low-poly.

The animations from above are created by Anbu Balamurugan and Charles Larrieu

Below is a small sample of some of the birds I painted.

Piping Plover

Golden-Cheeked Warbler

Spotted Towhee

Red-Necked Tanager

Merlin

Indian Spotted Eagle

Snowy Owl

Cedar Waxwing

Red-Headed Woodpecker

Downy Woodpecker

American Goldfinch

Ruby-Crowned Kinglet

Brown Thrasher

Blue Jay

Rigging

The main features of the rig are

automated global wing spread and fold
automated global tail feather spread and curl, in addition to independent controls for more fine control.
Zeroed out FK Controls that work with automated global controls
full IK-FK systems with switching on the legs and neck.
- IK system on the neck is to replicate bird head stabilization

Hand-Painted Wingspan Birds

Rigging