RIGGING & SKINNING
Introduction
This highly technical course builds the structural skeleton and muscle deformation controls that allow a 3D character to move. Students discover how to place joints, map weight influences, and build animation control interfaces.
Instructor Profile
Prerequisites
Description
Topics Covered
• Joint placement rules based on anatomical rotation axes
• Creating joint hierarchies (spine, limbs, fingers) and mirroring skeletons
• Setting up Inverse Kinematics (IK) and Forward Kinematics (FK) control chains
• Paint skin weights: painting vertex influence maps to ensure clean mesh bending
• Managing joint corrective blend shapes to fix muscle volume loss during bends
• Building custom control shapes and clean user interface linkages
• Facial rigging mechanics: bone-based rigs versus blend shape expression targets
• Rig optimization, clean channel boxes, and lock/hide controller cleanups
Course Objectives
• Construct stable, hierarchical joint skeletons matching 3D character geometry.
• Distribute smooth skin weight values to prevent unnatural mesh clipping.
• Build intuitive IK/FK control interfaces tailored for animation teams.
Learning Outcomes
• Build a full-body bipedal skeleton rig containing working IK/FK limb switches.
• Skin a character mesh to smoothly deform across extreme ranges of motion.
• Deliver an organized, error-free animation control asset.
Tools & Materials
• 3D Animation/Rigging platform (Maya or Blender)
• Dual-monitor workstation setup (recommended for technical management)
• Scripting helper toolsets or auto-rigging study guides
Course Rules
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