Hopefully, I am making it clear that the role of the rigger is pretty darn important. There is also mechanical rigging that covers cars, planes, trains and so on. On top of all of this, he needs thorough knowledge of anatomy, animal anatomy and kinesiology.

The rigger needs to understand the principles of animation and the techniques an animator may employ to create the intended performance. Therefore the rigger needs to understand the importance of good edge flow so he/she can predict how the mesh will deform. The rigger is the Geppetto of our times.Īs the role of the rigger primarily sits between the modeler and the animator, it's important that the rigger has a good understanding of both what the modeler is delivering to them and what the animator requires. In layman's terms, rigging is the process of adding the digital strings to the puppet.

It's the process of taking a static mesh, creating an internal digital skeleton, creating a relationship between the mesh and the skeleton (known as skinning, enveloping or binding) and adding a set of controls that the animator can use to push and pull the character around as if he/she is a puppeteer. Rigging is what makes deforming a character possible.

Maya animation examples