Auto-rigging scripts/plugins for maya, whats the best one?

#1

Hi guys,

I am in the process of modeling a couple characters for personal animations and as much as I would like to rig them myself I have no time and I lack the skills.

There seems to be a ton of auto-rigging scripts and plugins available for maya, what would you guys recommend using? I am looking for something that creates a clean control rig and is easy to use. The characters I am modeling range from humanoid to insect to octopus like tentacle creatures so it would be great if it can handle all types.

cheers!

#2

For bipeds I really like Rapid Rig and its GUI counterpart Rapid Pose, available over at CreativeCrash (I think they’re $40 and $20, respectively). But with the creatures you’re looking to rig, something more flexible and modular is necessary… hmm… I’m interested in seeing what other people suggest.

#3

It is very difficult to believe that this is free
http://www.facebook.com/pages/AdvancedSkeleton/114793298585853

It now even comes with auto skinning tools and a facial rigging system.

David

#4

Thanks a lot for the link to this amazing free system, David!:thumbsup: I think that’s gonna be hard to beat. Does the system allow setting up a double-knee leg for a biped, to spread knee rotations over two joints for more anatomically accurate deformation? I did not notice anything like it in the vids I quickly checked out.

 For bipeds there's also an automated system for Jason Schleifer's "Animator Friendly Rigging" available [here](http://www.creativecrash.com/maya/downloads/scripts-plugins/character/c/automated-animator-friendly-rigging). I have only briefly tried out the latter, since I use my own scripts, but on a first-look basis, it seemed like a pretty nice system.
 
 Cheers!
#5

Felix, I’m not sure how it would handle a multi-joint set up like you suggest for a knee. It will certainly allow you to build any configuration of joints and to save these a templates, but I dont think there is any way to tell the ik-fk chains to deal with the type of knee you describe. But I could easily be wrong. :slight_smile:

David

#6

I hope the 2012 version of advanced skeleton comes out soon so I can give it a go.

Anybody tried the anzovin setup machine and face machine? How do you like it?

#7

There’s also this:
http://www.creativecrash.com/maya/marketplace/scripts-plugins/character/c/automatic-rigging-system-written-in-mel--2
I haven’t tried it, but there is a link to a trial version on the page.

#8

That looks a bit expensive for what it does. For that price I can get setup machine and face machine.

#9

As far as I can tell, the current version still works in 2012. Did you have errors?

David

#10

No I haven’t tried it when I didn’t see 2012 listed. I will try tonight if that’s the case. Thanks for the heads up.

#11

Hi Ali,

Please feel to use my auto rigging script.

http://pritishdogra.com/Downloads/PKD-Rig-System.html

You can pretty much create whatever rig you want so it should take of various types of rigs you are planning to do.

I would be updating soon the overall rig system soon, so check out the website regularly or sign up in my twitter feed

http://twitter.com/PKD_Rig

I am also rewriting a new facial setup, where you would not need to paint weights(still in test phase though)

Cheers

Pritish

#12

I think the biggest negative of TSM and TFM is playback speed. The rigs are reliable and you know what you’re going to get, which is nice, but they can be really heavy (particularly TFM). I’ve heard of some people using TFM as an intermediate step – to quickly get face controls that enable them to sculpt blendshapes easier, and then they ditch the rig and just hook up the blendshapes themselves. Seems cool but I haven’t tried it myself.

TSM also has some weird choices from an animator’s point of view, such as when you switch to FK spine, you lose the independent hip control (both root and hip controls rotate the torso unless you’re in IK spine). It may seem like a small thing, but having the independent hip can come in so handy, which is why I really dig Rapid Rig at the moment (though I need to check out Advanced Skeleton! thanks djx).

#13 
   Thanks a lot for your input, David! It's much appreciated. When I have the time, I'll try and play with AdvancedSkeleton a bit more to see what it can do. It really seems like a great system. I especially like the facial tools with the automatic setup for squash&stretch! Really sweet setup! As far as the double-knee legs go, I guess I'll to stick to my own auto-rigging scripts. Thanks a lot again for bringing this super-neat tool to our attention. :)

pritishd: Your setup looks very interesting as well, Pritish. I’ll have to put some time aside to examine it closer. I’m really a horrible scripter, so I’m always on the lookout for something that gives me what I want as an animator in a more advanced fashion than what I can copy& paste together from the script editor. lol Does your tools allow for automating a double knee setup?

Cheers!

#14

At this stage I don’t have the double knee setup, however if you use the cartoony or lenght setup on the limb the IK would not pop if you have stretchy on.

However I would definately look into implemented the double knee setup at a later stage.

#15

Thanks for the info, Pritish! I’ll be on the look out then! :slight_smile:

Cheers!

#16

agree about TFM and TSM, it is sooo slow that it get’s impossible to work with.
Especially after coming from SI and have to animate in maya with TFM/TSM…
half day is lost with play blasting non stop.
But ther eis no dedicated rigger here in company for now so… have to live with it.

#17

Yeah I’ve resorted to using TFM only for a first stop for blendshapes, I still have to tweak the shapes afterwards but it’s not bad for a first stop.

I heard they’re rewriting the code for speed, but that was years ago… maybe it’s been done already but haven’t heard of it being fast enough yet so can’t say where that’s at.

#18

I’ll vote for Advanced Skeleton too… Very easy to use, and bonus tools like selection UI which is very easy to map! I connected it to a pose manager for animation and it works like a charm!

#19

it’s not a rigging system per se but I had the pleasure to use stretchmesh once and it was a pleasure… almost no weight painting and beautiful deformations easily…

stretchmesh

#20

ABautorig works great. Haven’t tried advanced skeleton for a while… i’ll take another look on its
updates.