Hey everyone, I’m looking for some solid resources for rigging in Maya. I have an internship with my school starting up this summer to build the school Maya rigs for future students to use in the animation classes, as well as a series of tutorials(and maybe some scripted tools to go along with the rigs) to help students along since the school I go to doesn’t currently have any instructors that really understand rigging or the technical side of Max or Maya.
I’ve found it’s hard to tell how good a resource is without using it (which tends to cost $$) and am hoping to get some suggestions. The majority of my work/learning so far has been in 3ds Max and I’m very comfortable getting Max rigs to do anything I’d like them to do, but I’ve only played in Maya a little bit. I did see the book ‘Autodesk Maya and 3ds Max Side-by-Side’ that Seth posted in another thread and am thinking about picking that up. Are there other great resources more specific to the workflow in Maya out there that anyone could recommend?
Animator Friendly Rigging (all of em)
Jason Schleifer Rigging Bundle (Oldie but a goodie)
Art of Rigging (1 and 2 are really good, Haven’t messed with 3, pretty cheap as well)
Super Toon (Decent stuff, most of the scripts are sloppy, but you get the idea of what’s happening)
Rigging/Skinning for Animation (Really good stuff, some nice concepts and side by sides of some similar concepts, spline IK vs Ribbon etc)
I suggest these as places to look and get concepts, but I wouldn’t straight replicated what they do, Sometimes what they show are hack work arounds and such, Always good to take what they show and use it as a springboard for new ideas. Also check out the Area for some good rigging stuff out of GDC this year.
Some others here may know more game related rigging stuff.
awesome, thanks for the recommendations. As you said it’s all just for reference, for a base of knowledge to expand upon. What I’m going to be working on has some pretty specific needs for the classes, I just want to get a running start with working in Maya instead of 3ds Max.
[QUOTE=Bharris;5892]Animator Friendly Rigging (all of em)
Jason Schleifer Rigging Bundle (Oldie but a goodie)
Art of Rigging (1 and 2 are really good, Haven’t messed with 3, pretty cheap as well)
Super Toon (Decent stuff, most of the scripts are sloppy, but you get the idea of what’s happening)
Rigging/Skinning for Animation (Really good stuff, some nice concepts and side by sides of some similar concepts, spline IK vs Ribbon etc)
[/QUOTE]
+1 on those.
Animator Friendly Rigging should give you a good handle on body rigging in Maya and is seems pretty approachable. I think Jason also scripts the rig as a part of the latter instalments…?! (I only bought the first few) For facial rigging, “Stop starring” is pretty good, though I don’t remember how Maya specific it is. The basic concepts should be pretty easy to implement, regardless. You could also check out Rigging Mentor and “Inspired 3D Advanced Rigging and Deformations”
If you are just starting out scripting in Maya, do your self a favor and start using Python or PyMel instead of mel… If you know a bit about coding already, converting mel examples to python is pretty straightforward, once you understand a few basics. Maya 2011 will ship with PyMel.
Btw. Though they have become much better overall, the Autodesk published learning products still vary quite a bit (!) in quality… So seeking advice on those before buying is a great idea! :):
Animator Friendly Rigging should give you a good handle on body rigging in Maya and is seems pretty approachable. I think Jason also scripts the rig as a part of the latter instalments…?! (I only bought the first few) For facial rigging, “Stop starring” is pretty good, though I don’t remember how Maya specific it is. The basic concepts should be pretty easy to implement, regardless. You could also check out Rigging Mentor and “Inspired 3D Advanced Rigging and Deformations”
If you are just starting out scripting in Maya, do your self a favor and start using Python or PyMel instead of mel… If you know a bit about coding already, converting mel examples to python is pretty straightforward, once you understand a few basics. Maya 2011 will ship with PyMel.
Nice Sune, and thanks for the plug.
All /any of those resources would be good and Brandon has it right, start with PyMel and check out the free masterclasses on the Area from this GDC.
Sounds like Animator Friendly Rigging would be a great jumping point. I have a strong background in C and C++ and I’m really looking forward to jumping into Python and/or PyMel on this project. I haven’t look at PyMel much yet, but I have been going through some of the Python resources linked in the wiki here on TAO to get a feel for how it’s written.
I’ve looked into Rigging Mentors quite a bit before, but sadly I’m a poor college student that can’t afford it. I’m lucky enough to get this internship with my school where they’re covering the cost of 2 classes for me in exchange for the work, and I’m also working with my instructor to get the school to cover the cost of some of the training I’m looking at. It’s a good resource for the school to have regardless so I’m hopeful.
Again, thanks everyone for the input! It’s going to be a lot of help.