Fahrenheit Digital Rigging for Feature Animation DVD

In this DVD Aaron guides you through the tools & techniques to rig a character typical of major Feature Animation studios, completely from scratch, using Autodesk Maya. Once complete, the user who purchases this dvd will have a thorough understanding of creating a "broken hierarchy" type rig.

I must say this is one of the most complete training material for rigging i've seen to date. Jam packed with almost 10 hours of advanced instruction, Aaron shows you various techniques that can be applied to the creation of clean and efficient cartoony rigs. From stretchy limbs to building rigs using MEL, this dvd is a must have for current and future character td's.

You will learn various production type techniques in these lessons. And because there is hardly ever one way to do a task, more than one solution is covered for some of the set ups. For example, Aaron will show you how to build a typical Stretchy Spline IK Spine setup, but also shows how to build a Stretchy "Ribbon" Spine setup, which gives animators greater control over their spine animation. He also compares and shows how to build an IK Leg with pole vector constraints to a "No Flip" IK Leg set up. Some other techniques worth mentioning are the split knee set up which lends itself to better deformation and control in that area. Another is an FK/IK arm setup that allows for switching between FK and IK without any change to the position of the driven arm.

There are a few sections on melscripting some of the rigging process, though there are always preceding lessons that show how to build that part of the rig manually. Aaron also uses mel to create various parts of a rig, like when he needs a utility node to be added to the rig. MEL is not overbaring but at the same time you're able to understand what exactly he's using mel to create.