What rig is good to start animating with?

[ErikSvensson]

It really depends of how you animate, rather than the rig itself. I prefare rigs that works in realtime without lag, any un-needed controllers and stuff. I work with motionbuilder at work, and thats fullbody IK ( there is two examples of FBIK in maya as well, check the visor) though, FBIK in maya isn't as great as in motionbuilder.

For maya, I'd go with Lowman, one of the simplest, best rigs I've ever worked with, And great performence too. There is one more that I recommend, a blue thin guy that was somewere on highend3d.com, basic guy is he called, I think, he is slightly more complex than Lowman, but very user friendly.

My tip would be to play around with many rigs and see how you prefare to animate, then decide what kind of setup you actually need.

Erik

[asharhaque]

Yes,
I would recommend basic guy too. U can download him from highend3d.com. A really awesome rig. Very appealing design and fun to animate.

[chickensandbeandip]

You should state which package you are working in.

For maya:

Lowmax is the best i've seen. Better than the lowman blend. Use the Lowmax rig. Simple but very effective. Good facial controls and blend blendshapes (the lowman blend has some really ugly blends for emotion) and the body has a skinned version. This doesn't make too much difference to the animation but if you want to add a clothing texture for a render it is a nice touch compared to a peice rig. It has a ik fk match script from what I understand. Stretchy everything. It is simple and good.

Basic Guy it a good character to use for action sequence but it lacks a mouth so it is somewhat limiting.

Ollie is another good well developed rig with a GUI but to manually key his face is a pain in the buttocks. It is based on premade face shapes and you tweak with the facial controls. But it is well done.

The Alfred rig is another nice rig, but it is all controlled by channel sliders and the face is mostly driven influence objects so you can only do so much before he starts looking like a dude with fishhooks in his face. But it is a very appealing character.

The Sam rig is a more upscale version of the lowman blend. It has better facial deformations and controls but it isn't the most appealing rig out there. A good rig none the less.

The andy rig is a good rig too. Haven't used it too much but it seems popular and can be doubled as a female or an effeminate male.

The moom rig is a good "cartoony rig." It is all geo shapes as well but the face is very stretchy and fun. It does have driven influences but it is done well enough that it isn't restricting.

Then the two classics are lowman and Generi. There are two different versions of lowman. The blend version which has a skinned face but a static body type, or the lowman regular version which uses a hinged jaw for a mouth but has a modifyable body type. The Generi was one of the first free rigs to use the stop staring face rig. It is another good rig. Some others are decent but kind of niche characters like package man and the like.

Over all i'd recommend the Lowmax and the Alfred rigs and Blue guy for action. All are great rigs with minimal but appealing character design which allows them to be beleivable in both acting and action in any character type. Which is important. It's hard to make a fat mustached pizza chef seem like a 12 year old school boy.

Lowmax
http://www.highend3d.com/maya/downloads/character_rigs/Max-for-Maya-4877.html

Alfred
http://www.highend3d.com/maya/downloads/character_rigs/Alfred-4295.html

Blue Guy
http://www.highend3d.com/maya/downloads/character_rigs/Basic-Guy-4284.html

For 3ds Max:

All i know for 3ds max is Lowmax.
http://www.highend3d.com/3dsmax/downloads/character_rigs/Max-practice-rig-with-facials-4554.html

For XSI:

There is a rig out there somewhere called Hogan or logan.. can't remember. Do a google search for it.

Hope this helps.

late.
:cool:

[DeWeD]

Hey!
Yea sorry for not mentioning that.
I work in maya and i will deffinatley try out all of those.
Thank you so much! :)

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