Using free rigs

Over the last few days I've been trying out two different rigs and also been overcoming many problems with Autodesk Maya. I've started to realise how difficult it is to learn a whole new piece of software, and that I'm now very much against learning to rig as well as animate.

The main thing I've learnt is how important it is to set up the software correctly before starting. Although there are different ways to key in frames in Maya, I found that using stepped tangents works best for me. It allows you to block in key poses at the start, and then animate the transitions between them afterwards using the graph editor, instead of  going through constantly to check the animation; this also makes it easier to work from a storyboard.

Here are a couple of the rigs I've tried out, both of which were recommended by 11 Second Club (http://www.11secondclub.com/resources), a website which hosts monthly character animation competitions.

Rig 1 - Moom

Moom was the first rig I tried, as I read some good reviews online and I like the art style of it. He's basically a cartoony character who you can squash and stretch into many different forms, making him versatile for comedic animations. It comes with a custom GUI which is used to select each point of the rig, rather than having controls in the main view.

Setting up a few poses with Moom

The two downsides I found with Moom was that the custom GUI wasn't fully compatible with Maya 2014 (which is what I'm using), and that it was difficult to move his limbs in realistic ways because they stretched out and never retained their original proportions.


Rig 2 - Max

Max is an improvement over Moom for me, as he is easier to move around and his proportions always stay in check. The controls all work in the main view which allows for easier movement, and he also has good, simple facial animation tools so that if I did decide to put some focus on the face, this model would make that easy enough.

Making Max jump a bit

The only concern I could think of with Max is that he doesn't fit into my current story idea, but that doesn't seem too important as my story is not the focus for marking.


Rig 3 - Eleven

Eleven is a rig made by a group of contributors to 11SecondClub, and I feel that it is a perfect balance between the two rigs above. It's not extremely cartoony and un-realistic like the Moom rig, but it also has a good style and isn't as boring as the Max rig. The controls are very easy to use, and within minutes of editing it I was creating a variety of different emotions.

Making a scared run