Objective: Prepare the stylized character for clean, expressive animation with squash & stretch capabilities.

Steps:

Received the textured stylized character and verified the correct scale → applied transforms (scale = 1, rotation = 0).

Built a base control rig using Blender’s Rigify sample chains, carefully placing each bone chain for proper articulation.

Added custom bones for shoulder pads, cape, weapons, and a dedicated root bone for clean rotation.

Symmetrized hands and legs and created a control hierarchy for stylized movement (non-connected bones for squash & stretch, but properly parented and named).

Generated control objects and adjusted widgets for animator usability.

Skinned the character and refined paint weights to ensure precise deformations.