Unnecessary geometry

I have come to the conclusion that, unless the animator specifically wants to have the character remove his clothing, the geometry that lies underneath the clothing is a bit superfluous. No matter how well you paint the weights, there will always be penetration because the skin will be affected from a different location and move at a different angle than the clothing. It can be done but would be a huge waste of time if the character's clothes are always on. So, if I get the ok, I'm going to plan to delete most of the underlying skin geometry.

A Heavy Rig

These ideas are sounding great and really difficult. It would be awesome if you could figure out a way to get the cloth to react to the movement in the same way as the concept, but what is most interesting to me is the way I'll be able to animate his weight.

In classes here, we've mostly been using the Morpheus rig, and he's a little limited as far as heavy characters go. Some problems we've run into were treating the fat as an elastic substance, rather than a solid. For example, when he is resting on his belly, his body is held a foot off the ground because there is this giant solid mass in the way.

Even if we can't work around that, it would be amazing to have a controllable gut that we could move around and emphasize the weight of the character during movement.

We've never had a weighty rig, and it would be amazing to get to animate that kind of weight shift. Looking forward to an excellent rig :)

Concept Art

I received a link to concept artwork for the model I am working with.  This is helpful, since it gives me a little bit of idea of how the character is supposed to move and deform.  Based on this sketches, it seems that sharp angles are important to the design of the character.  For example, the bend at the knees and at the elbows remains pointed, so its important to try and preserve that.  Also noted is the way the pants slide up the leg, revealing the body underneath and the way the stomach bulges in the sitting position.  There are also folds created in the crotch of the pants as they stretch to compensate for the leg being raised and bent.  Another deformation to consider is the back of the head where the skull connects to the neck.  When the head rotates back, there is a slight bulge and crease as the neck compresses.

The Promoter

Here is the model that I will be working with for the collaboration.  The biggest challenge with this character will be building a system to manipulate his considerable weight and assist with the deformations of his neck.  With characters that have large jowls, the geometry tends to collapse in on itself when the neck rotates, so a system to support and create a bulge will be necessary.  The same system will be applied to the gut for the same reasons.  Also, there is the issue of the pant legs: because the legs a far skinnier than the bottom of the pants, something will need to be put in place so that the pants will move and deform according to the shape of the leg and when it makes contact with the cloth.