Komodo Dragon Animation

Above is the animation I did for the Komodo dragon, if you couldn't tell it's just opening it's mouth to devour something...

Making of the animation;
I moved the model from Mudbox by obj format again and I exported normal maps out, you can see below what I clicked on to extract the maps.
[Image]
After a lot of trial and error I learnt that since I added the claws and eyes in Mudbox, it kept messing the UVs up when I render the maps and they weren't being projected properly onto the model.

After getting the maps rendered and working I used a blinn material, then I clicked onto bump mapping and then chose file and selected the normal maps that I rendered earlier in PSD format. This made the model have the same amount of detail, it doesn't actually change the geometry it's just a stimulation of sorts, that makes the surface look dynamic and 3D. I also had the paint maps from mudbox and since the model has UV it all just fit perfectly on the blinn material.

After getting that set-up all I had to do was add the bones, I used the join tool to add 4 joints; 2 at the bottom, 1 in the neck and 1 in on the top of the mouth, I used this placement after trail and error and looking at the mood board. Then I just went under skin and clicked on smooth bind. This just made it more natural.
then I created an IK handle for the joints and basically set a key frame at the beginning and moved the slider and changed the IK handle position and set another key frame then moved the IK handle back to the original place and created another key frame.