Modeling a Character for Rigging and Animation in Maya
In this course, we will build a character for use in rigging and animation. Software required: Maya 2009 and up.
What you'll learn
In this course, we will build a character for use in rigging and animation. When rigging and animating, it's always nice to have an appealing character to work with. However, if you don't have a lot of experience modeling, it can be difficult to create a character you will be happy animating. There are free characters and rigs out there, but many have been used over and over, and it would be nice to create something you can call your own. In this course, we'll cover the building of a simple character, with emotive eyes and eyebrows that you can then rig and animate. We'll look at methods for building the head, body, arms, and legs and connecting them all together. We'll talk about building the topology with an eye towards rigging and animation - building it to deform well. The ultimate goal of this course is not to give you a new pre-built model to use, but rather to teach you to use the techniques shown to create your own custom character, ready to rig. Software required: Maya 2009 and up.
Table of contents
- Shaping the Head of the Character 9m
- Modeling the Eye Sockets and Brows 8m
- Adding the Nose and Hair 10m
- Building the Ears 9m
- Modeling the Body and Attaching the Head 9m
- Adding Arms to the Character 10m
- Building the Hands 11m
- Adding the Character's Legs 10m
- Building the Feet 10m
- Modeling the Eyes 9m
- Mirroring the Geometry 4m
- Adding the Eyebrows 10m
- Creating UVs for a Simple Texture 13m
- Adding Color and Texture to the Model 12m
About the author
Justin thrives as a lead modeling author at Pluralsight. Growing up, Justin found a deep interest for the computer graphics industry after watching movies like Jurassic Park, Toy Story, and The Abyss. His ambition would lead him to work at Sony Imageworks in Los Angeles on movies like Monster House and Surf's Up. Justin has also had numerous articles, tutorials, and images published in 3D World and 3D Artist. As an author, Justin enjoys collaborating with fellow authors, especially on project... more