(My recent)
School of Motion Rigging Academy experience ..
Summary
First off, I am probably not a ´typical student´ that usually takes this couse - as I am not a character animator (primarily), nor plan to become one.
School of Motion Rigging Academy experience ..
Summary
First off, I am probably not a ´typical student´ that usually takes this couse - as I am not a character animator (primarily), nor plan to become one.
Actually, character animation is just a small part of what I do ..
But - (beside other things) being also a designer / illustrator - I´ve always been curious about how to bring my characters to life, eventually ..
So - after some time of hesitating and considerations whether or not this course is a good fit for what I need,
I finally decided to give it a try.
But - (beside other things) being also a designer / illustrator - I´ve always been curious about how to bring my characters to life, eventually ..
So - after some time of hesitating and considerations whether or not this course is a good fit for what I need,
I finally decided to give it a try.
Course outline
Rigging Academy is a School of Motion on-line (self-paced) course.
Meaning - unlike with other SoM courses - the content becomes accessible all in once, so you can learn as you need, in your own pace, no time schedule.
(this course has no TA´s / no feedback).
The content is divided into 10 main chapters - with several sub-chapters each - from the easiest to more complex ones.
Rigging Academy is a School of Motion on-line (self-paced) course.
Meaning - unlike with other SoM courses - the content becomes accessible all in once, so you can learn as you need, in your own pace, no time schedule.
(this course has no TA´s / no feedback).
The content is divided into 10 main chapters - with several sub-chapters each - from the easiest to more complex ones.
During the course, instructor Morgan Williams explains and demonstrates - in small and digestible bits - different workflows / options / approaches - for different parts of a body, one by one.
From simple hands rigs, legs & feet - to full body and/or more intricate situations like facial expressions using combination of techniques, close-up hand rig, how to tackle leg flipping, layer swapping or rotation morphing, if necessary - or even - at the end of the course - how to approach Quadrupets (4-leg animals) rigging.
As the course proceeds, students have a chance to learn not only about different aspects (or techniques) of rigging - using the latest version of DuIk (Bassel) - but also how to utilize some rigging-related AE tools like expressions controls - and/or - learn some best practices / ´logistics´ of rigging. And - last but not least - how to keep the project organized (otherwise one can get lost in tens of layers pretty easily).
From simple hands rigs, legs & feet - to full body and/or more intricate situations like facial expressions using combination of techniques, close-up hand rig, how to tackle leg flipping, layer swapping or rotation morphing, if necessary - or even - at the end of the course - how to approach Quadrupets (4-leg animals) rigging.
As the course proceeds, students have a chance to learn not only about different aspects (or techniques) of rigging - using the latest version of DuIk (Bassel) - but also how to utilize some rigging-related AE tools like expressions controls - and/or - learn some best practices / ´logistics´ of rigging. And - last but not least - how to keep the project organized (otherwise one can get lost in tens of layers pretty easily).
My personal experience
I enrolled in the course with no big expectations really (as mentioned above, character animation is not my main focus) - just hoping to learn some very basics of rigging - and DuIK - as I thought rigging was easy - and that all I needed was just quickly go through the lessons, and that´s it.
Well, I couldn´t be more wrong.
Rigging is hard.
Much harder than I thought it would be.
Well, not the rigging itself (technically it´s just a few easy steps, repeated over and over, with slight variations specific to different cases / goals / level of detail etc.)
What I mean here though is rather the ´decision making´ behind the rigging process ..
(decide what type of rigging to use, when, what for, which parts to connect - and how, whether or not combine the rig with puppet pinning, where to place the pins, and/or think of / & fix / all possible issues that come into play while using puppet pins, etc.. ) ..
For basic rigging this is probably no big deal -
since DuIK makes the process pretty easy, in a few clicks, basically.
But - in case of some more intricate character designs - rigging (I mean good / well working complex rig here) can sometimes be pretty tricky.
So - to understand all these aspects - quick running through the course is simply not enough.
It takes some more effort.
You´ll probably need to carefully follow all steps/lessons, bit by bit, no skipping.
Fortunately, with Morgan´s guidance (very clear and easy to follow) -
all of that starts to make sense, in the end - even for someone like me (no previous rigging experience whatsoever).
I enrolled in the course with no big expectations really (as mentioned above, character animation is not my main focus) - just hoping to learn some very basics of rigging - and DuIK - as I thought rigging was easy - and that all I needed was just quickly go through the lessons, and that´s it.
Well, I couldn´t be more wrong.
Rigging is hard.
Much harder than I thought it would be.
Well, not the rigging itself (technically it´s just a few easy steps, repeated over and over, with slight variations specific to different cases / goals / level of detail etc.)
What I mean here though is rather the ´decision making´ behind the rigging process ..
(decide what type of rigging to use, when, what for, which parts to connect - and how, whether or not combine the rig with puppet pinning, where to place the pins, and/or think of / & fix / all possible issues that come into play while using puppet pins, etc.. ) ..
For basic rigging this is probably no big deal -
since DuIK makes the process pretty easy, in a few clicks, basically.
But - in case of some more intricate character designs - rigging (I mean good / well working complex rig here) can sometimes be pretty tricky.
So - to understand all these aspects - quick running through the course is simply not enough.
It takes some more effort.
You´ll probably need to carefully follow all steps/lessons, bit by bit, no skipping.
Fortunately, with Morgan´s guidance (very clear and easy to follow) -
all of that starts to make sense, in the end - even for someone like me (no previous rigging experience whatsoever).
Is CAB (Character Animation Bootcamp) necessary,
as a prerequisite?
as a prerequisite?
This question comes up quite often.
Personally, I did not take CAB, before RA - so I can´t advice - I only can speak for myself ..
For me - as I already had ´some´ previous experience both in character design and/or in character animation (frame by frame) - so - I already knew the anatomy/mechanics of a body / how weight affects the pose / how body should move, etc. - and only actually needed to learn how to - technically - make this happen ...
so - for me Rigging Academy was a great fit.
I learnt a lot, and liked it.
On the other hand - School of Motion advice is to take Character Animation first, before RA. For a good reason.
In case you do not know what it takes to make a character move - and what aspects of body mechanics are involved - it might be difficult to understand/learn how to rig a character, without all of this in mind.
Personally, I did not take CAB, before RA - so I can´t advice - I only can speak for myself ..
For me - as I already had ´some´ previous experience both in character design and/or in character animation (frame by frame) - so - I already knew the anatomy/mechanics of a body / how weight affects the pose / how body should move, etc. - and only actually needed to learn how to - technically - make this happen ...
so - for me Rigging Academy was a great fit.
I learnt a lot, and liked it.
On the other hand - School of Motion advice is to take Character Animation first, before RA. For a good reason.
In case you do not know what it takes to make a character move - and what aspects of body mechanics are involved - it might be difficult to understand/learn how to rig a character, without all of this in mind.
Is RA focused on character animation (only) ?
Well, basically, yes - it´s all mainly about rigging a character (or an animal, at the end of a course).
No animation theory, and no other (non-character) types of rigging, in the course.
But - once you get a grasp of those basic character rigging principles -
you can then translate them also to some other types of designs, eventually.
That´s actually what I was hoping for, too, when I enrolled in the course :)
Well, basically, yes - it´s all mainly about rigging a character (or an animal, at the end of a course).
No animation theory, and no other (non-character) types of rigging, in the course.
But - once you get a grasp of those basic character rigging principles -
you can then translate them also to some other types of designs, eventually.
That´s actually what I was hoping for, too, when I enrolled in the course :)
Conclusion
RA is a pretty technical course, and - to get the best of if - it requires some active involvement / effort from a student - following carefully all the steps and options demonstrated in the course.
For those curious about how character rigging works (and what options there are available in AE/DuIK Bassel) - the course has the answers.
With a lot of examples, step-by-step demonstrations and valuable instructor´s insights -
RA is a great and comprehensive ´hands-on´ introduction to AE/DuIK rigging.
At least in my experience.
RA is a pretty technical course, and - to get the best of if - it requires some active involvement / effort from a student - following carefully all the steps and options demonstrated in the course.
For those curious about how character rigging works (and what options there are available in AE/DuIK Bassel) - the course has the answers.
With a lot of examples, step-by-step demonstrations and valuable instructor´s insights -
RA is a great and comprehensive ´hands-on´ introduction to AE/DuIK rigging.
At least in my experience.
My own little experiments ..
(note: the following designs / animations are not part of the course -
these are mine, just to test whether or not / how my rigs work.)
(note: the following designs / animations are not part of the course -
these are mine, just to test whether or not / how my rigs work.)
