Rigging - Maya

Learn how to prepare your model for animation!

This course is primarily intended for those who have no experience with rigging techniques, but also for professional riggers and for 3D artists who want to expand their skills and knowledge of character rigging.
In this course, we will go through the entire process of rig creation, animation construction for one character that involves constructing the spine, arms, fingers, legs, head and face. The course participants will be thoroughly acquainted with the concepts of construction, which include, among other things, the preparation of 3D models for rigging and advanced techniques such as:
● Different approaches to construction depending on different conditions such as animator affinities, studio and studio’s pipeline requirements, co-production, mocap, genuine animation, and various tasks that a “rigger” may face in practice.
● Special attention will be given to logic and mathematics behind the mechanics of 3D software, which will be explained in the simplest way possible for the sake of better understanding and handling of non-standard problems from project to project.
After completing the course, participants will:
● Have the knowledge to independently implement the learned techniques,
● Be able to improve the existing rigs on which they have worked on independently,
● Get all the scripts (MEL and Python) and tools they used during the course, for permanent use.

Course program

Theory of rigging and tools
• Theory of rigging
• Getting acquainted with the tools used for rigging

Skeleton menu
• Getting acquainted with the skeleton menu

Joint orientation, controls for animation
• Explaining the orientation of joints and making controls for animation
• Setting up joints and the correct orientation of joints on a character (”Tips and tricks” how to most efficiently set up the joints on a character)
• Finalizing settings of joints on a character, naming and mirroring joints
• Exercise for setting up joints

Rigging legs
• Reverse foot controls technique
• Questions and exercises
• Advanced techniques for rigging legs (IK-FK system, IK stretch, pole vectors)
• Questions and exercises

Rigging spines and heads
• Rigging spines and heads (IK stretch and FK system)
• Questions and exercises

Rigging arms
• Rigging arms (IK stretch and FK system, forearm twist)
• Questions and exercises

Rigging fingers
• Rigging fingers, making predefined poses and enabling the manual movement of each individual finger
• Questions and exercises

Preparing a rig for animators
• Preparing a rig for animators and connecting all rig systems (cleaning excess attributes on controls, color coding controls for easier visual selection, making an accurate hierarchy for the global scale of the entire rig)
• Questions and exercises

Theory of skinning
• Theory of skinning
• Getting acquainted with tools for skinning
• Preparing a model for skinning
• Skinning techniques (smooth and rigid)

Skinning a rigged character
• Skinning a rigged character (part one)
• Questions and exercises
• Skinning a rigged character (part two)
• Questions and exercises

Advanced techniques for skinning
• Advanced techniques for skinning (techniques that give the effect of real bodily deformities)
• Questions and exercises

Rigging faces
• Face rigging (theory section)

Blend shapes
• Getting acquainted with blend shapes
• Blend shape techniques for rigging faces, making controls for animation of blend shapes
• Questions and exercises

Techniques for rigging faces
• Bones technique for rigging faces and making controls for animation
• Questions and exercises
• Cluster technique for rigging faces and making controls for animation
• Questions and exercises

Connecting face and body rigs
• Connecting face and body rigs, making a low res model for fast feedback after animation
• Questions and exercises

Advanced techniques for rigging
• Advanced techniques for rigging (corrective shapes)
• Questions and exercises

Certificate

Upon completion of the course students will receive the internationally recognized Adobe Certificate of Completion, as well as the Crater Training Center Certificate.

Lecturers

Milicko Mijatovic
Lead Rigger @ Crater Studio

A CG superstar with the privilege of having worked with Emir Kusturica, Nikita Mihalkov, Netflix and many other big industry names, Miličko has been building his career in 3D animation for more than two decades. Starting as a 2D animator, he quickly moved into 3D and found his focal point in Rigging. He works at Crater Studio as a Lead Rigger, where he grows every day through work on numerous film and animation projects. He has collaborated with Mercedes, Coca-Cola, Heineken and numerous domestic studios. He has also worked in the gaming industry, where he is certainly worth mentioning for his work on Casino Gaming. At Crater Training Center, Miličko teaches Rigging.

COURSE INFORMATION