Animator Friendly Rigging

Animator Friendly Rigging is one of the top training tools available to learn the ins and outs of creating character rigs that your animators will enjoy working with.

Based on the same principles that animators use when animating, these tools will teach you not just how to create one particular type of rig, but they will help you develop a systematic and creative approach to solve almost any rigging problem.

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This 8 chapter series (broken into 4 parts) helps teach the rigger to look at a problem, get reference, analyze it, try some ideas, generate a toolkit of techniques, and apply them in a way that will make their animators more productive and creative.

Find out more..

You can also purchase the entireย bundle withย allย the training materials at once for a nice discount!


135 Responses

  1. Samba says:

    Hi ,

    AFR Fixes says you have to go one section up the download section to find “js_getAttachedObjects”. But I can’t find it on this website. Am I look at the right place ?

    Many thanks,

    Samba

  2. Lens says:

    Hi there… I have the same question as Samba…

    I’m Almost Done with AFR!! Woohooo! just that last snag. could we please get a link on this site to js_getAttachedObjects…
    -I see the downloads link does not have it…

    oops… I just saw that Samba posted today aswell – you might need more time to reply
    -but i’ll post anyway:)

  3. jason says:

    hah! okay, I have created a downloads page now that should have the files there.. if you find anything missing, let me know!

  4. Samba says:

    Great timing !
    Thanks a lot, Jason !
    Your dvds really opened a new world to me, just go on …

  5. Thank you!

    Your dvds have opened a whole new world for me. Still refining my rigging skills.

  6. jason says:

    Thanks Ali! I am glad that they are useful for you! Our skills continue to refine as long as we live, so keep going! ๐Ÿ™‚

  7. Abdallah Albasha says:

    Thanks a lot Jason.
    I love your way of teaching , clear, direct, deep info and interesting …
    really you’r the lord of ring ๐Ÿ™‚

    every time I see the DVD I learn new things ,,, thanks

  8. Lens says:

    Awesome!!
    I Finished!
    I Finished Animator Friendly Rigging! AAAAAAAALLLLLLLLRRRRIIIGGGHHHHT!!!

    -i only got one (or two) minor tweaks, and then its completely done!

    I’ll post Carmen (the character i did my rigging on) for you as soon as i’m done with those minor tweaks. (or i’ll beg for help with these last few blerrie bugs)
    Either way, expect her up soon!

    Thanks, Jason.
    I learned more from you in these past few months than i did in the past 5 years of using maya.
    Rock on.

  9. Lens says:

    hmmm where can i upload it? I dont have a site unfortunately. can i email it?

  10. Lens says:

    Hi all
    I’ve found a pretty good site i can load files up on.
    Sorry about the ads! -i can’t help that! but here’s the file.

    http://www.sendspace.com/file/47l7vw

    Ps. the UI is exactly the same UI script Jason gave with AFR.
    The UI does not work if you reference the character unfortunately. (one of those bugs i couldn’t get right)

    enjoy!

  11. Rakesh yadav says:

    i don’t know what to say;;
    during every minute of your dvds
    i learned something
    its just a huge pakage of knowledge

  12. Lens says:

    Hey there i was just wondering if i can get some feedback on the rig i created… bad feedback is welcome!
    I’m working on a 20 second animation with it now, and i have found some more bugs with it. But ‘d still like to find out what people think…
    thanks!

  13. virtual_gravity says:

    where can i find the fix for the getstretchaxis script?
    i’ve been looking on the site but can’t find it.
    it is listed in the fixes updates.pdf.
    thanks.

    love the dvds!!!

  14. jason says:

    hmm.. get stretchaxis.. I’ll look for it. ๐Ÿ™‚

  15. Dave says:

    Hi Jason, great dvds!!!
    Question regarding the afr shelf… my file does not have the ‘2’ at the end, as mentioned above, but still it doesn’t load correctly. I copied the images from the ‘support files’ folder into my icons folder and the shelf is empty. Any ideas of what the issue could be??…thx

  16. jason says:

    heya dave!

    thanks for the kind words!

    are you getting any errors in the script editor when you try and load the shelf? are you on windows or mac or linux?

    cheers!

  17. Aurelien says:

    Hey Jason, thank you for your amazing dvd’s.
    I have a problem though, I’m looking for the fix for the stretchy IK creation when axis is negative, on my mirrored joints.
    Could it be found somewhere to download?
    Thanks in advance.

  18. Aurelien says:

    Don’t worry, I took care of it thanks to the fixes.pdf.
    Thanks a lot again, you really learned to me how to rig.

  19. Mike says:

    Hi Jason,

    I might have a problem with my js_matchObjUI. It launches fine and I have the option to load an object but all the options/settings below that are missing their options (Match Object Options, Match Iteration Options…). I am running on a Linux. Have you heard of this issue before or have any ideas how to fix it?

    Thanks in advance.
    The rigging tutorials are great.

    -Mike

  20. jason says:

    Heya Mike!
    I haven’t heard of this issue before… are you getting any errors in the script editor?

    thanks man!

  21. Mike says:

    Hey Jason,

    The Shelf button launches it with no errors:

    source js_matchObjUI;js_matchObjUI;

    I can load an object into the first field but then I get no other options (nothing under Match Object Options, Match Iteration Optionsโ€ฆetc).

  22. Benjamin says:

    Hi. Same problem here to the letter. I thought about hacking things and building a tabless interface but the prospects upon opening the two scripts seems a little daunting. For what it’s worth I’m running 9.04 ubuntu. I’m thinking it’s a motif problem. I’ve had issues with custom UI’s in general. But I’m a bit of a linux noob. If I manage something useable I’ll drop a line.

  23. Mike says:

    Thanks Ben! Let me know if you find anything.

  24. Benjamin says:

    [solved]
    Hi. Seems windows dynamically resizes stuff to fit the content but Linux requires that you dictate it so just add the flag for height to the frameLayout command in the js_matchObjUi to something useful we found -h 120 for the $fl1 and -h 200 worked well for all the others. You won’t be able to collapse the tabs but the script now works fine.

  25. Mike says:

    Works like a charm. Thanks very much Ben.

  26. yuvi says:

    Hi Sir, I’ve set up the elbow-pin method that u have explained in AFR , and it works fine on the left arm. but when i put it on the right arm, it flips out the geometry of the upper arm. Any solutions?

  27. steadystefano says:

    Hello Sir, I’m done with the whole rig was able to apply it to a sample character I made, how do I bind it to the high-res mesh, its a broken rig, do I select all joints and smooth bind it? many thanks, by the way great work with dvd tutorials

  28. hardy says:

    Hi, I’m having some trouble with the right arm of my rig. I assume this is because the mel script I have is not the most recent one, but I can’t find the link to the update that is talked about in the pdf above js_getStretchAxis.mel Can anyone point me in the right direction.

  29. […] Animator Friendly Rigging […]

  30. Sapphire says:

    Hi Jason,

    Today from AFR 03A, I saw that I do not have sdk copy,sdk auto,sdk length,mel blend,add A,mel match in my Animation Friendly Rigging shelf. If I put them in the script folder, well they appear in the shelf with the remaining or I should do something else. Thank you sir.

    Sapphire ( same person from cgtalk ).

  31. jason says:

    @Sapphire
    Heya sapphire! if you have the scripts and put them in your script folder, they won’t necessarily appear on the shelf. But you should have recieved a shelf when you purchased AFR 03A that has those scripts on it.. did you check your prefs directory? the shelf.mel should be in there.. please let me know if you do or don’t find it! ๐Ÿ™‚

  32. Sapphire says:

    Hi Jason

    Yesterday only I found this page, I was searching for it.

    I was thinking that the shelf is same in all the folders, but now I removed the previous shelf and I use the shelf in AFR_04B and it is having the scripts ready ๐Ÿ™‚ , thanks again.

  33. Balaji says:

    Helooo Jason Sir

    Im Big Fan of you , im really happy to say i met in abai fest 2008 ,, it was happy movements i didn’t took picture but i still i remember few words wat u said …and Oops sorry let introduce myself

    Im Balaji,Rigging Artist from Bangalore,India nothing question i want critics abt my Work but i have Small (WIP) Video abt my rigging stuff …i have to add few stuff like Quadruped n Hanuman(INDIAN HULK) soon i’ll upload n send to you

    i don’t know whether u have time to reply may be im wasting ur 4 mins time of me im sorry for that ..

    But i just waiting for ur reply sir

    Thank you & regards
    Balaji

  34. Jonas says:

    Hey, I just finished the left side of my rig and i’m wondering what other people were wondering about the stretchy ik script fixes. Could you find them? Thanks a bunch for the invaluable learning tools. If you don’t find a fix, I suppose I can just whip one up on my own.

  35. Jonas says:

    Well, I figured it out, and then I needed another mirror shape tool so I went looking on the net and found everything at creative crash!

  36. matteo says:

    Hello Jason
    at first your tutorials are really great.:)
    I have a question about the faccial expression and phonems.
    Are there in “animatior Friendly Rigging” a section for facial rig, expression and phonems? or maybe did you have some tutorial about it?
    thanks
    all the best
    matteo

  37. jason says:

    @matteo
    Heya matteo!

    I don’t have anything on facial rigging in these dvds.. I recommend jason osipa’s “stop staring” series, it’s really great! ๐Ÿ™‚

  38. Sunny says:

    Hi Jason,

    I was studying your AFR rigging and its great !!
    Right now I am building a less complex rig without any stretchy spline and twist.

    But having a small Prob ๐Ÿ™‚ I don’t know if this is the right area to ask for help.

    I got into a problem when I had to attach the hand joint with the arm. When I parent the hand group with all the Bend, Sides geo and other finger joints with the actual wrist joint, every thing works. Except the bend and side for hand. As its in your DVD.

    I also tried other steps from your DVD which is something different from your rig. IK works but then when I pull the Hand control far it takes the hand away from Arm.

    Is there a way to put the hand intact when I pull the control out from its limitation and make bend and side work as well. I have only tested it with IK arm.

    Thanks
    Sunny

  39. Karnifex says:

    Ave Mr. Schleifer ! I was wondering if your scripts work with Maya 2011 ? Because no matter what I do nothing happens. And yes they are all in correct folders (I think). Even when I just copy and paste any of your scripts in the Script Editor and execute it… nothing, not even a error message. Other scripts, like Michael Comet’s scripts work fine, but yours are not. I’m learning rigging for myself (I really have nothing better to do), but still, just wondering. Thank you.

  40. Chantie says:

    Hi Jason,

    I was wondering if js_getStretchAxis.mel update and js_createIkStretch.mel Update mentioned in Javier’s PDF were still available to download? The versions I have don’t work on the joints on the right side of my character. ๐Ÿ™

    Thank you,

    Jackie

  41. czar says:

    Hi Jason,

    I rigged a character according the dvd. it works like a charm. M really thankful to you,learnt tons of stuff from it. i have a small problem, i need a stretchy on off button for arms. i have tried using nodes, but its not working.. Can u tell me how the hierarchy wud be. . thanks.

  42. Eoghan says:

    Hi, I’ve downloaded all dvd’s but the sdk_length script is missing form all versions. Is there anywhere I can download this from?
    Thanks

  43. shhLIFE! says:

    […] Community […]

  44. satya avinash says:

    hello jason, I created a GUI as per the instructions in ur documentation.
    I want to know, how do I multiselect from gui window. I tried shift selecting, but its not working.
    Can u plz help me??

    thanx in advance
    satya

    • jason says:

      What command are you using for selection? If you are using something like “select l_fk_up_arm_anim” then it will just select, it won’t add to the selection.

      You may need to create a procedure that will check and see if the “shift” button is being held down, if it is then you can add to the selection. If not, then it’ll replace the selection.

      or, you can use select -toggle and that will toggle the selection for the specified object.

  45. joey says:

    hi Jason is the discount for AM students / alum over now? I cant find where to put the code

    • jason says:

      heya!

      nope, it’s not over.. to enter the code, click on the “order now” button once you get onto fastspring’s site. Enter all your information, hit “next” and then there will be a place to enter the code on the next page. ๐Ÿ™‚ Enter it where it says “Update Coupon” Once you enter the code and hit enter, you’ll see the price update.

  46. Darrell says:

    Hey Jason great stuff! I am a student at ianimate.net and I saw in the AFR forum that you give a discount for ianimate students but I don’t know what code that would be or how much of a discount it is. I would love to know and I will tell my brother (the web guy for ianimate so we can get it posted some place). I have recently started to actually understand some rigging and have heard such amazing things about the AFR tutorials! Thanks for you time.

  47. Ciccio says:

    Hello Jeson,
    I see that you have many products about rigging, Wich one should i buy in order to learn how to rig my own models ? I don’t need to rig feature-ready character, just simple biped with and w/out mouth.

    Can I achive this with your latest Animator Friendly Rigging ?

    Thanks in advance for your reply

    • jason says:

      Good morning Ciccio! The tutorials I have don’t talk about facial animation rigging, they’re focused on body rigging for animation control. They all build off each other, so if you’re interested in rigging the body for animation, I’d start with the first!

      If you’re more interested in rigging for faces, check out the Stop Staring book by Jason Osipa.. it’s quite good!

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