Ok, so I’ll admit it: I’m not a very good character rigger. Sure, I know the basics, but the process of setting up a character for animation just isn’t one of the things I enjoy doing… too much trial and error for my taste.
Setting up Bagel 2 wasn’t much of a challenge and so I got away with a simple system so clumsy it would probably bring tears to the eyes of an experienced rigger… and setting up a dragon is a whole different beast altogether!
But since my main character model, the dragon Tatsu, is almost finished, I was looking for (preferably free!) tools to assist me in rigging the little guy. My quest on CGTalk and HighEnd 3D yielded results fairly quickly — here’s what I’ve been able to dig up, so far:
- Creature Tools
Creature Tools is a free tool new to me, but nonetheless very interesting. The intuitive animation system and some of the other bonus features look useful! - FinalRig
This one I’ve had the pleasure of using before, and I remember having a lot of fun playing with the “stretchy IK” features, allowing for a very toony style of animation. Seems technically mature and quite stable. A bonus is the out-of-the-box support for a tail (and wings), which could save me a lot of time. Plus, it’s free! - aniMan
Here’s another free rigging tool, but unfortunately the producer’s site hasn’t been accessible for what seems like forever. The system itself feels solid enough and the feature-set is impressive! - Character Studio for Maya
This one looks like a Chinese hack to bring 3ds max Character Studio–like features to Maya. Apparently there’s no official homepage or anything of the sort and the whole thing feels a bit flaky… I’m staying away from this one! - The Setup Machine
The Setup Machine is the first non-free solution I tried. Its features include builtin support for quadrupeds, centaurs (!) and tentacles… nothing I’d particularly require. Still, support for long necks and tails could come in handy. The boxy character controls were a bit lacking, in my opinion. - AdvancedSkeleton
Animation Studios of Sydney, Australia, offer a trial version of their relatively expensive rigging solution, AdvancedSkeleton. Playing with the evaluation version, I must say that of all the systems I tested, this is the one I liked least. It sports a vast feature-set, but overall it actually felt less sophisticated than some of the free alternatives.
Then of course there are independent products such as Motionbuilder or messiah:animate, which are both out of the question at the moment due to their pricing.
So right now I’m leaning towards FinalRig 1.2, mainly because of the integrated tail and also because I’ve used it in the past and am hence familiar with some of its quirks and their workarounds.
Should you have any other suggestions, I’d be happy to hear them!
