Furthermore, you are blessed with being at the beginning of your animation careers, so your expectations of what you want in a rig are fairly simple. You have the advantage in that you are rigging for your style of animation.

And of course, each character has features and needs that will determine what techniques will be needed. Each TD or set-up artist has ways of creating rigs, each animator has certain expectations for the rigs, and each production has certain needs that the rigger and animator must bow to. This process is complicated by the fact that there are as many ways of rigging characters as there are set-up artists and animators. For the purposes of this class YOU will be the TD.

The animator sets keyframes on these controls, and the animation process continues from there. Then, the Technical Director (TD) creates controls that the animator uses to move the character. It involves creating a skeleton structure out of joints and bones that will deform the model.

Always remember that this isn’t meant to be oppressive its about independence! Rigging is the sometimes excruciatingly technical art of articulating a character for animation. As animators, you either need to have characters rigged for you or you rig them yourself! If you want to tell your own stories, you will have to confront the sometimes intimidating art of rigging characters for animating. The more you do this, the more you practice it, the better you will get at it. Practice doesn’t make perfect PERFECT practice makes perfect. Character Rigging In Maya using ekCharacter l Introduction These notes are meant to supplement and not replace the class lectures.

Character rigging maya