Automating Animation & Game-Ready Rigs by Nick Miller

Sharpen your scripting skills as we delve into modular rigging with Python in this 3-hour workshop created for riggers and aspiring coders. The objective is to create a one-click solution for rigging bipeds, with the potential for customization to suit other types of characters, pipelines, and project requirements.

Nick Miller, Creature Supervisor at DNEG, introduces a comprehensive library of code and explores the moderate-to-complex components of Python, Object Oriented Programming, and rigging. Building your own modular rigging system gives you several advantages; not only does it save you significant time, but it also enhances your problem-solving skills and prepares you to contribute to a company’s rigging toolset.

Watch as Nick leverages Maya’s standardized human IK skeleton as a template by using it as a foundation to build rigs. This technique helps you to incorporate motion-capture data to drive your rigs. To showcase the system, Nick utilizes a downloadable character from Mixamo and then applies his tools to generate a fully functional rig before applying motion capture as keyframes onto the rig’s controls. Additionally, Nick instructs how to organize rigs in a game-engine-friendly manner, allowing for easy export of the skeleton and character mesh.

Upon completing this workshop, subscribers will have learned essential rigging techniques, including building a modular rigging system with Python, the basics of Maya’s human IK skeleton, how to apply motion-capture data, and how to export rigs for game engines.

Project files provided with this workshop give students a reference or guideline to follow. The downloadable project files include Nick’s asset build folders for three characters, including models, guides, textures, scripts, weights, and controls, as well as his modular rigging package (nmrig and grig).