IK: Rigging a Bird with IK Handles and Curves in Maya 2016

Animation resources in the Autodesk Knowledge Network:

• Character Animation Reference– The topics covered include the Rigging menu set, the Character Animation Nodes, and the Character Animation Tools. Includes the Skeleton menu, Skin menu, Deform menu, Constrain menu, Control menu

• Character Controls – discover the new character controls in Maya 2016 ext 1.

• Human IK window – This includes HumanIK menu button, Character menu, Source menu, skeleton tab and more. 

Then, check out this basic overview from 3D total that goes over the basics of animating in Maya: Know the Basics: Maya Part 5: Animation.

How to Make A 2D Animation Or Cartoon in Maya

In this tutorial from TunnelvizionTV uses a 2D character brought in from Photoshop and explains how to bring it in. He explains how to order the objects in the Outliner panel in Maya. This is a useful tutorial for new Maya users because it explains the basics pretty clearly. 

Quick Rigging and Skinning a Character in Maya 2017

3D Tutorials shows you how to create a basic character rig fast.

Character modeling: Bat

Tales of Nalstone put this super cute bat character tutorial together. 

Part 2: Basic 3D Bat Character Part 2 – Modeling

IK: Rigging a Bird with IK Handles and Curves in Maya 2016

Mike Hermes makes a basic bird rig animated with joints, IK handles, and nurbs control curves.

Character Animation: An Alternative Way to Animate a Foot Roll

Lester Banks always features great tutorials and this one from Brian Horgan goes through the IK to avoid the dreaded knee pop. 

IK: Better Managing Pole Vectors on an IK Chain in Maya

This is another via Lester Banks and is from the rigging artist Giovanna Coutinho and she talks about how to set up an ideal joint chain for IK handles.