Maya Monday: Free Rigs and Rigging Software

I should start by mentioning that I posted a Maya Monday article on the Quick Rig feature in February that has several tutorials. Quick Rig was introduced in Maya 2016, extension 2 and is an auto-rigging tool that finds the right points in the character mesh.

Maya Monday: Maya 2017: Quick Rig

Maya Dragon Rig

This creepy, yet kind of cute dragon reminds me of the juvenille delinquent, fed after midnight Mogwai in the film Gremlins. This was actually used in a short film,Forsaken Warriors, with the dragon concept art by Jaemin Kim. and the model, texture, rig, and lighting by Truong.

Download the Dragon Rig

Here’s a video on how to use the rig.

Squirrels and Stewart

These are free professional-quality rigs from Animation Mentor.

Animation Mentor says that these rigs are easy to use and great for beginner-level animators wanting some personality in their characters. You just need to register at Animation Mentor to download the rigs.

Learn more

Want Help Rigging?

Anzovin The Setup Machine 3 for Maya

The Setup Machine for Maya, is an auto-rigger, packed with advanced features that will revolutionize the way you rig your 3D characters, saving you time and money. Easily generate a flexible, modern character rig in minutes!

The Setup Machine 3 is a plugin for Maya 2014 and later. TSM3 enables you to quickly and easily create a high quality animation rig for any character. Simply add our modular widgets to your character and click ‘Rig,’ and TSM3 will install a state of the art character animation rig, with stretchable, bendable limbs, anti IK pop, smart IK/FK switching, true mirroring, and more! There are also options to use lower resolution systems, suitable for export to game engines and you can generate a mocap skeleton that drives the animation rig, so you can easily work with mocap data.

Note: The Setup Machine is no longer available at Toolfarm.

BZP Pro Smart Skinner Professional for Maya

Reduce your rigging time from days to minutes with the BZP PRO Smart Skinner!

Imagine doing 110+ hours of rigging and skinning in 30 minutes. With the new Smart Skinner from BZP Pro, this is a reality. Created by authorized AutoDesk developers – led by Brent Zorich, formerly of Lucas and EA – Smart Skinner changes the way organizations approach development and scheduling.

More about BZP Pro Smart Skinner for Maya