Faster, Better, Rigging in Maya with Rapid Rig

"Rapid Rig: Modular" is a powerful automated rigging tool developed by Dustin Nelson and available for $90 at Highend3D.com.

Rapid Rigdoes what the name suggests - it allows you to build rigs rapidly, with speed and efficiency.

And it doesn't just rig bipeds. Rapid Rig will allow to rig characters with "four arms, two heads, twenty eyes, fourteen fingers, eight legs" - you get the picture. And all without having to understand anything much about rigging.

To get started, all you need is a 3D model. From there, Rapid Rig allows you to build a rig from scratch, starting only with a root and adding:

• Splines (such as spines, necks, and tails)
• Arms
• Legs
• FK Chains (fingers, tails, spines, wings
• Heads
• Look-Ats (eyes)

You can attach any of these to each other in any order you like. You can make assymetrical characters, humans, dogs, spiders, birds, centaurs, dragons. Almost any creature you can imagine, you can rig with these tools.

The script comes with some powerful presets to get you started on with rig to save you time.

• Biped (Human)
• Quadruped
• Arachnid
• Bird

All the modules can be modified after creation. You can also clone, mirror, reattach, pin and re-color your modules.

Here at Escape studios we stumbled across Rapid Rig while working with the super-talented animation team up at Jagex in Cambridge, where they create and animate the smash-hit game RuneScape.

Props to Dustin Nelson for creating such a powerful tool, de-mystifing the rigging process and making it much easier for students and professionsals to build their own character rigs.

The Escape Studios Animation Blog offers a personal view on the art of animation and visual effects. To find out more about our new BA/MArt, follow this link.  To apply, visit the offical page here.