Introduction to Rigging
Rigging is a process by which you create control systems to move, rotate, scale, or “deform” a polygonal mesh in a predicable and repeatable way. This process relies on good edge flow to create appealing deformations. If you add keyframes from one deformation to another, you are animating! A 3D character should deform (bend and fold) where a real person or animal has physical joints. When rigging a character, you would use an armature to create bones and joints with the ability to rotate according to forward or inverse kinematics (IK/FK) principles. For a robot, you might have a similar rig to a human or animal character, though the bones would instead move and rotate separated pieces without causing deformation (assuming the parts are made of rigid metal). There are many other types of rigging controls, including constraint modifiers, that will enable you to add life and movement to time-based works. Please explore some of the examples below to see a range of techniques and possibilities related to rigging and animation.
- Screenings
- Tongue-in-cheeck mock-u-torial: “The secret of animation”
- Motion graphics: AirSpace, AirSpace Breakdown
- VFX example: Iron Baby, Making of
- NPR Film: For the Remainder
- Facial rigging example:Snapperstech Face Rig, Snapperstech
- Mechanical Rigs: Decepticon Rig, Mechanical Cat
- Muscle rigging: Medical Muscle rigging
- Simulation-based animation techniques: Fest by Nikita Diakur
- Terminology
- Armature
- Parenting
- IK/FK: Understanding IK/FK
- Drivers
- Pole vector (For orienting joints when using IK)
- Painting Weights (vertex groups)
- Shape Keys
- Apply Transforms (CTRL+A -> apply scale )
- Resources