Meet Mery!

Meet Mery! We're recommending this excellent character rig for use by our students at Escape Studios.

Mery is now live and available to download, and - best of all - she is completely free.

One of the many benefits of animating with Autodesk Maya is the large and growing global community of artists who collaborate on freeware projects, bringing to life excellent animation rigs like this one.

Where can students download Mery?
To find The Mery Project, go to  http://www.meryproject.com. Below is a short video explaining how Mery works:


Mery Project Presentation from Mery Project on Vimeo.

Who created Mery?

Mery was created by Jose Manuel García Alvarez and Antonio Méndez Lora.

What are the terms of use?

Mery comes with a few restrictions. You are permitted to use Mery for animation practice and educational purposes, and in your demo reel, portfolio and on your website.

But, you cannot use Mery for any commercial project "for financial gain", or for any "pornographic, sexually explicit, violent, racist or otherwise immoral content". 

What about credits?
You must credit "meryproject.com" in your work.

Are there bugs?
All rigs have their quirks. There are always things to be worked out, and also curiosities that take time to figure out.  Every rig is different and all take time to master, and you should always familiarise yourself with every rig you use before you commit to animation.

To see some excellent animation done with Mery by Escapee Henry Fenwick, now working at Jellyfish Pictures, see the video below. The shot was created as part of the monthly 11 Second Club competition.



What other rigs do we recommend?
Of course, there are many other free rigs that are excellent and well-proven for character animation. Don't forget that their creators should always be credited.

1. Bouncing Ball. The best place for beginners to start learning animation. You will have to register with Creative Crash first, but it's free and they don't send spam.
2. Ultimate Rigs. A great collection of free rigs.
3. Monty. Our favourite simple biped rig - perfect for learning animation. 
4. Norman. An excellent biped rig, very stable and thoroughly tested. Norman can be adapted and customised.
5. Heavy. Based on the character from the video game Team Fortress. An excellent, stable rig.
6. Morpheus. An excellent free rig for character performance, and very adaptable. Not for beginners.

---Alex

The Escape Studios Animation Blog offers a personal view on the art of animation and visual effects. To apply for our new BA/MA starting in September 2016, follow this link.