Where Can I Find Some Good Rigs to Play With Online

I get this question all the time, actually, which is great, because it means that a lot of people out there are really hungry to practice their animation, which I think is terrific!

I thought I'd just do a quick post here to point you towards some rigs that my buddy Tim Oberlander has very generously put up online for anyone to play with:

http://timoberlander.blogspot.com/
(there's a "downloads" link on the right side of the page)

He's going to be putting up some updated characters soon with a GUI overhaul, some new squash/stretch stuff, and assorted other goodies, but the rigs are already really powerful and ready to be played with, so hop over there and get downloadin'! Be sure to tell Tim hello, and it'd be extra-great if you could credit him in any work you might use it for...

You know, writing that post get me thinking, and I just want to comment quickly on one more thing. Some people are apparently feeling like it's ok to steal our Animation Mentor characters and use them in their demo reels, or recreate models that look very similar to our characters.
Obviously, this is very misleading for recruiters (who, by the way, react *VERY* negatively to finding out they've been misled... Putting that stuff on a demo reel is certainly NOT the best way to get a job, I'll say that much), and it also hurts our students who have worked hard to be able to be a part of Animation Mentor in a variety of ways.

If you've recreated our characters, I'd encourage any of you change the designs and colors at least enough to not look like blatant ripoffs of our student's characters. While it's very flattering to think that you like our designs this much, it has the potential to hurt your demo reel with recruiters just as much as it may hurt our school's image, and my true dream for all of you is to get to experience a career in this art I so love.

We try very hard to put as much free animation information out there as we possibly can, and this blog is just one of the many ways we try to do that. It'd be great to not feel like people are taking advantage of us...

I know that the vast majority of you would never do something like this, but I just wanted to throw it out there because it came up again recently in a couple ways and it just bums me out.

We're legally obligated to protect our character designs (if a company doesn't make strong efforts to protect their copyrights, they can lose them), and we SO don't want to be one of those companies out there hunting down copyright infringements... ugh - it's such a waste of time, and just not what we're here to do.

So... if this isn't too naive, can I just ask nicely that you please avoid ripped of AM characters and instead use any of the gajillion free characters out there to play with (such as Tim's!), or create your own?

Creating your own is INFINITELY better anyway, as it can really make your demo reel stand out!

Thanks, everyone!

Shawn :)

By: Unknown On 09.56

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Reader's Question: Is It Necessary To Learn Rigging?

Mac left a comment asking: I want to know that to become a successful animator, is it also necessary to learn rigging?

This is a great question, and of all the CG disciplines, rigging is certainly the most relevant to what we do as animators. Rigging truly is an art, and the rig an animator is given will make a huge impact on that animator's work - both in what the animator is capable of doing with the rig, and in how quickly the animator can get his work done.

Having a fast rig that you can work with quickly can make all the difference in the world when it comes to hitting your deadlines. On the flip-side, it takes a true rigging expert to create a rig that is fast, but is also very flexible and powerful, and has all of the options the animator requires when posing that character and creating a performance.

So for me, rigging is an incredibly important aspect of what we do.

That doesn't mean that we need to know everything about rigging ourselves, of course, as our job is often to simply be the animator. HOWEVER, if there is one thing that it is helpful to study a little bit and get *some* amount of understanding of, it's the basics of how your rig works, and how it's built.

I don't have a very deep understanding of how Optimus Prime is rigged up, but I know enough about his rig to know how I can pose him, what will break him, etc. And having a very rudimentary knowledge of how expressions work and so forth will help you at times with working with your character.

Additionally, many smaller studios prefer their animators to have a strong knowledge of rigging, and these smaller studios often have animator/riggers doing both jobs at once.

This is a case where knowing a bit about both jobs will open up more job opportunities for you, but be aware that these jobs are not generally going to be a feature film studios or often even larger games/tv studios. The big studios are still, by and large, looking for experts in each given field, as that structure has proven to provide the best quality work...

Anyway - like pretty much anything else, it can't hurt to learn a bit about rigging as long as it isn't distracting your time away from learning more about animation, but I wouldn't spend a ton of time with it unless you really love doing it!

shawn :)

By: Unknown On 19.35

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