This class will show you how to setup Rapid Rig Modular for bipeds. We’ll find out how RRM works and delete the head as the “neck top” joint is actually the head jnt. Add twist joints and learn how to tweak the fingers and place pivots. Finally we’ll skin the mesh and custom some skin sets for easy tweaking later.

This page covers the basics of skinning in Maya. We’ll cover all the main tools like assigning skin weights, the paint weights tool and component editor, and the editing of skinning in general.

In this class we’ll get more into the preferred skinning workflows in Maya. We’ll use a few scripts to really get the most out of Maya’s skinning functionality and explore the more advanced topics of rigging. Copy skinning between meshes, between topology, using the magic smooth skin tool. Lores to Hires mesh workflow, heat and geodesic skinning and more.

This class will really free up the rigging process by allowing us to rebuild rigs quickly. Mistakes and tests will always find little issues with our rigs. So we need to be able to rebuild fast and be able to go back to the Rapid Rig Modular proxies and tweak pivots/number of joints etc. This class supports the rebuilding of rigs whilst maintaining skinning, blendshapes and the drag and drop facial rig as well.

In this class we’ll explore how to build modification such as custom FK joints and controls. RRM in particular has very heavy FK chains (arbitrary chains) which we’ll want to avoid. Using follicles we’ll able to parent controls to vertices on meshes for appendages and clothing which is handy in certain circumstances. The first half of the class we’ll learn how to build everything manual, then we’ll find how we can build the controls easily with off the shelf scripts.

This class will explore corrective blendshapes for deformation with the Braverabbit SHAPES 2.0 plugin. We’ll explore all sorts of correctives targeted at body deformation, with both automatic driven key setups and “pose space deformation” known in SHAPES as “weighted drivers”. We’ll also quickly cover “animation finaling” a technique that can be a lifesaver in jobs that need to get out the door fast. SHAPES has a free personal learning edition so you’ll be able to get started easily.

This class is a short class on how to reuse skinning to skin other bipeds very quickly. We’ll use a modded skeleton and transfer the skin weights from this lo res mesh onto our new characters. Be sure to be familiar with Rapid Rig Modular and skinning workflows before watching this class.

This class explores a simple yet powerful “triple jaw setup” that’s easy to understand and gives animators a lot of control when combined with facial blendshapes. Three pivots are use for the jaw instead of the usual one. With clever skinning and a nice parenting structure we can easily create a jaw and mouth setup that’s easy to use and powerful.

We’ll find out how to rig a realistic eye in this class. This version is a very simple setup that supports full automatic lid follow and blinks and will work on a wide variety of characters with rounded eye balls, creatures too. We’ll build the eye rig manually but later we can grab the Drag And Drop Face Rig which is a fully customisable version of this setup with a few extra bells and whistles that can be setup in a few minutes.

This page contains The Drag And Drop Face Rig a simple yet powerful facial rig designed to work with a blendshape system. This is a super easy rig to setup, simply drag and drop it onto your Maya scene, place the pivots and tweak as desired using the rigs attributes. Joints will drive the eyes and “the triple jaw joint” setup and then we’ll add a blendshape system for full facial control.

This class covers the setup of an eye lash and eye brow rig. We’ll use follicles which is the easy solution to what can be a difficult task. Ordinarily eyelashes and brows are tricky because we may have extra skinned geo following those areas, it’s difficult to maintain volumes in some of these areas. But with the follicle setup we can do this easily, though there are some little tricks along the way.

In this class we’ll explore blendshape facial setup with brave rabbit’s SHAPES 2.0 plugin that is a must have tool for blendshape facial setup. SHAPES makes it easy to do a lot of complicated tasks such as driven key correctives, sculpting shapes, tweaking and mirroring, editing renaming and managing all of our shapes. SHAPES 2.0 also goes much deeper but we’ll save those features for another class. SHAPES comes with a free personal learning edition so it’s easy to get started.