I spent some time in the Art Department on Coco helping with character sculpts. Specifically, how to make the amazing concepts coming from the designers work in 3d. The biggest challenge by far was nailing the appeal of the characters and defining a design language for the skeletons. They couldn’t look creepy, but still had to look like bone.
These are some expression tests done with a model I made in Art as a design validation. We wanted to make sure the skeletons as designed could act in an appealing way and do everything that Animation needed. While the rig in this model changed a lot between this model and what was eventually made for the show, there was enough here to see that the design was working.
These are screenshots of the anim model from Pixar’s animation system, Presto.
This is the one speaking skeleton I did for Coco. Design sculpt, production model and rig.