General Rig FAQ

What is Rigging?

What Pose should my character be bound in?

Model and Bind in A pose. Rig in T.

(Esp. with respect to the arms) The pose where the the muscles are in middle of flexion and extension range, so that you have best opportunity for skinning.

Nice model sheet here: http://www.dustinbrown.com/wip/temp/tposes.jpg

I was actually going to ask about characters with abnormal postures. As a modeler it's immensely helpful for me to incorporate as much of the character's attitude into the pose as I can. Not an easy task when you're asked to make him/her stiff as a board (T). But even with some of the more relaxed poses, like the A or S you referred to, I often wonder where to draw the line between what I can incorporate into the model, and what should be done by the Rigger.

Lets say you've got a zombie. Slouched kyphotic posture, knock-kneed, and pigeon-toed. Should I build that stuff into the model or let the Rigger handle it? That's a character that will obviously never be required to walk "normally."

(Dustin Brown)

I would consider that a pose of the rig, - its very very tricky in cases like that. Its something you sort of 'get' after a while of working with lots of different characters, creatures, robots etc etc.

The question you need to ask yourself is that is whether the neutral state of the character will affect the animator to animate properly - thats crucial.

A stance or 'feel' of the character should always come from the posing in my book.

(Charles Looker)

What should I have on my rigging reel?

At this point in the game, items like IKFK, Foot rolls and even stretch are common place. It'd be more surprising if a rig didn't have these elements. So knocking those off the list,I would suggest showing:

-fully automated Biped setup (with gui)

-New approaches or creative solutions to common problems

-dynamic elements as you listed

-deformation controls and volume intergrity

-Facial setups

-if your interested in doing commercials, a solid car rig is a must

As for presentation:

-clear bullet points on the side of the frame

-don't just wiggle all the controls, 3-4 dynamic/character specific poses or facial expressions show of the range. We get it, wiggling the pole vector shakes the leg. : )

-don't linger, show off the highlights and move forward

As for job placement, theres a few options:

-Character Setup Artist: some shops are large enough to need full time character maintance

-Setup Artist / TD : More based around rigs and tools/pipeline

-Technical Animator : Able to get a mesh rigged and moving, both to a decent level

-Setup Artist / Simulation : Cloth, rigid body sims, hair, ect that can be added atop of existing setups

Heres a good example of tools and break downs, he's a Lead TD at ID software:http://www.csa3d.com/tools.php

(Kiel Figgins)

As Kiel said : don't show basic common rig features like that, you need to show creativity in problem solving. Showing custom solutions really shows these skills while basic features can be done by following tutorials so it doesn't "prove" your skills to the employer.

You should challenge yourself with something you have never seen in a TD reel before, You will learn a lot from that process

(EricLegare)

- Fast problem solving skills
- On mass tools
- I/O Tools
- Export Tools
- Patchability - Keeping production running smoothly

Research & Development

Something that solves a complex issue, and is VERY robust

Grounding

Good Solid Grounding of math basics:

Transforms, Quaternions & Curves

A Treat:

Something that was cool to work on

(Charles Looker)

1. A biped rig

2. A Human face rig

3. A quadruped rig

-Auto rigging scripts

-muscle setups (not really necessary as long as your deformations are good, but it doesn't hurt)

-Knowledge of soft/hardbody dynamics

(archanex)

Only your best work

Keep it SHORT

For me, music is irrelevant and sometime annoying, unless it is needed for your animation. Some people strongly disagree though.

but TD or rigger, i like to see how problems/challenges were solved. i like to see different approaches,

out-of-the-box thinking, good deformations, easy-to-use and intuitive rigs. catch my eye in the first 10 seconds

(J. Carey)

What should I have in my autorigging tool?

creative, fast, intuitive solutions to common problems.

I want to start scripting. Which language should I learn?

Jason Parks explains the differences.

Where can I find free rigs on the web?

Boolieman Rig (thanks to NY MUG)

Andy Rig

Morpheus Rig -- by Josh Burton

22 Best Free Rigs For Maya - from Lester Banks (thanks to Z. Zhou)

Stuart Rig - John Rosenthal

Can you recommend some good books/DVDs about rigging?

Complete Maya Programming, David Gould

'The Art of Rigging' series from CGToolkit

Fahrenheit DVDS

Animator Friendly Rigging, Jason Schleifer

Maya Python For Games And Film - Adam Mechtley, Ryan Trowbridge, Seth Gibson

What is the Maya API and how/why should I use it?

If the script you want to write requires a Maya command that does not exist, or if your

script would be much simpler to write if a node with a certain set of characteristics existed,

you can add such commands and nodes to Maya using the API.

The Maya API is a C++ interface with which developers can write plug-in shared objects that

may be loaded into Maya at runtime. When they are no longer needed, plug-ins can be

unloaded. As a result, you can efficiently develop a plug-in by compiling it, loading it, testing

it, unloading it, changing its source code, recompiling and reloading. The same can be done

for plug-ins that have been implemented using the Maya Python API.

The APIs of Maya provide access to a significant portion of the functionality of Maya. This

includes, but is not limited to, the ability to query and modify existing data such as geometry,

transforms, hierarchies, scene graph, and DG nodes. Also, these APIs let you create new

objects such as shader types available to the renderer, and let you draw in OpenGL®. The

OpenMaya API also includes a class that permits the customization of a shape's hardware

rendered appearance so that tools can be developed to let artists see how their work will

appear in a real time environment. Plug-in features can be added and removed at any time

using scripting language commands. Plug-ins can operate in either of the two modes of

operation of Maya: interactive or batch mode. The Maya API is available in a standalone form

for writing separate standalone applications. These applications can read and write the

ASCII and binary scene files of Maya and perform operations on the data therein.

As described in the previous section, you normally add a new command or node (or both) to

Maya using one of the APIs and then create a script that provides a UI for the new feature.

For example, you can use one of the APIs to create a new type of node, then write a new

command that creates an instance of the node and places it in the scene and connects it to

the appropriate nodes. Finally, you can write a MEL or Python script that inserts the

command in a menu so that you can access it.

(Maya API Whitepaper)