Professional quality rigged Maya characters - where to get them?

# 1 18-05-2010 , 02:19 AM

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Professional quality rigged Maya characters - where to get them?

There have been a few times recently where I've looked for rigged models to help with quick turn-around jobs and it's starting to feel like there are actually literally almost none available, anywhere.

Turbosquid has most of its characters in Max format, and those that are listed as maya (.ma or other) state in the description that the rig is only partially implemented for that format, or in some cases not at all.

Other model resource sites are just a mess or too hard to browse and search.

I'm quite comfortable rigging my own models but often I'd rather just find some ready-to-go assets and factor the cost into a project.

Can anyone recommend really good quality, reliable sources for this kind of thing? Maya format specific, quality rigs, low poly or high poly (often low is enough).

Many thanks for any possible suggestions.

I consist of mostly water.

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# 2 18-05-2010 , 10:22 AM

Lead Modeler - Framestore
Join Date: Feb 2003

Location: UK

Posts: 6,287

A professional quality rig is just not available.

Essentially theres no such thing as a pro rig on the market as this type of thing is really a studio thing. Rigs are customised per job, be it for Film or games. Joint chains are pretty much standard but its the way the controls are laid out, scripts and so on.

There are DVDs available to help you rig better but at the end of the day its down to you how you do it..

J

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# 3 19-05-2010 , 07:38 AM

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Thanks for the response.

I should clarify again: I have absolutely no problem rigging at all. I'm hardly the best character rigger in town but I know more than enough to get exactly what I need out of any particular character I might end up working with.

I'm not really involved in pipeline work and I don't animate for game engines directly - only pre-rendered sequences.

So, in other words, I can use rig of any layout or makeup for the purposes without any problems.

By "professional" I only really meant good quality. Probably a poor choice of words.

I do lots of fast turn around work, and if I were a Max user, I would have access to seemingly hundreds of fairly decent, usable, fully rigged characters. Some aren't so cheap...say $300+ sorta thing, but even that is sometimes doable because it can in included in a project's cost.

It's actually more expensive for me to spend the time to rig a character myself, because I don't do it daily and it takes me a bit of time.

I'm a 3D artist, but also game developer, website developer, among other things... I'm just after some good 3D files to get a hold of and hit the ground running when a project comes along.

I already do my own characters, rigs, scenes, etc... it's just not always the best way to go.

I consist of mostly water.

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# 4 20-05-2010 , 10:17 PM

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theres a fantastic tutorial at digital tutors which wont take you more than two or three days to go through and its like 99 usd so in terms of time i dont think you would have lost much

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# 5 21-05-2010 , 01:41 PM

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A tutorial for what?

I consist of mostly water.

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# 6 21-05-2010 , 01:59 PM

Lead Modeler - Framestore
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I think he means rigging

J

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# 7 22-05-2010 , 03:31 AM

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Wow.

I appreciate people taking the time to respond to my post, but somehow the message is getting lost.

Just out of curiosity, is anyone actually reading my posts entirely?

I know how to rig. I'm quite skilled at it in fact for some one that would list 3D as only a secondary part of my current occupation. I first learnt bipedal rigging in 2003, and over the next two years refined what I consider my 'ideal' simple but effective standard character rig.

Don't want/need rigging tutorials. Seriously.

I'm just after rigged characters...something like a site like Turbosquid, but that properly supports the Maya format.

Here's how this would play out on a Max forum:
ME: "Hi, I'd like some rigged characters, that I'm happy to pay for."
PERSON: "Try Turbosquid. It's great!"
-
fin.

I don't like Max though...I like Maya. Is there actually nothing around? Am I doomed to not have available those same resources?

I consist of mostly water.

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# 8 22-05-2010 , 06:32 PM

The thin red line
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I think you need to comission some one to do this and you would need to be more specific your requirements......dave

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# 9 23-05-2010 , 12:57 AM

The Nurb Herd
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Location: London

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if you can rig and have been rigging since 2003 why do you not have any rigs? you don't have to get a new rigged character every time you do a job.
it sounds like all you do is previz so just get a rigged model and use it over and over again. why do you need so many characters?

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# 10 23-05-2010 , 03:03 PM

yes...you dont sound not non double negative
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i think he needs a "rigging" solution.
i.e. an automatic rig tool or plug in (like in xsi)

level 3 luchador!

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# 11 23-05-2010 , 11:11 PM

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I have a rig, and I can purchase unrigged characters and rig them. I've to do that a fair few times recently. It's not difficult, but it's counter productive and an unwanted drag on a project's time line.

Sometimes I do an entire character from scratch, model it, rig it, render... I love doing the full character pipeline, I really enjoy it.

the point that isn't getting across is this:
I work for an agency that does a huge amount of fast turn around work. I do Iphone and Flash games, as well as rich media web sites, and all three of those project types frequently call for rendered animation sequences, character walk/run/attack/whatever loops, etc...

We work with large budgets and affording premade character models is absolutely not an issue, what IS an issue is meeting a release date sometimes only days away, therefore needing something immediately ready to use.

The other day I needed a rigged Wolf. I've barely touched quadrupedal rigging before so I wasn't comfortable dragging the project timeline out while I looked into the kinematic and skeletal structure of a four legged animal. Learning is not the point. Getting a job out the door in time is.

I found an absolutely perfect wolf. It looks awesome, has a great rig, and even came with a run cycle I would have used for reference, or modified to suit what we need.

Only problem is it's an XSI file, and converting it to Maya format destroys the rigging information.

Could I learn to rig a wolf? Absolutely. Would the job get finished in time if I did that? Probably not.

A few weeks ago we needed a "generic businessman". Something like the default Poser characters would have even been enough. I have a heap of rigged characters in Maya already, but nothing that looked the part. I ended up applying an existing rig to a model we bought, because I was only resourced for about 8 hours of work on the entire project. It worked, but it sucked to have to do that.

I find it interesting that there seems to be an entirely different community and mentality around Max.

I don't really want to bring that software up again because I don't know how to use it, and I don't want to learn it.

But there are just so many models available in that format, those guys have it sorted.

I can't understand why no one is generating Maya content, other than the software is just surrounded by an entirely different mentality.

I consist of mostly water.

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# 12 24-05-2010 , 12:16 AM

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Here's the conversation I've had several times now:

MY WORK: "We need a rendered walk cycle of (insert some dude). How long do you need?"

ME: "About a day or two to come up with a character and get it ready for animation, looking right, decent shaders, then a few hours per animation cycle for whatever is needed".

MY WORK: "Can't we just buy a character, and you can start animating straight away? We need some animation today. Here are three that I like - (link, link, and link)."

ME: "Those characters on Turbosquid are not in Maya format, I can convert them but I'd still have to apply a rig to them, redo the skin weights, and possibly fix other issues."

MY WORK: "Well can't you find a Maya format character for us to buy?"

ME: "I'll look into it."

....

And so I look into it.

And I find nothing.

I consist of mostly water.

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# 13 24-05-2010 , 01:15 AM

yes...you dont sound not non double negative
Join Date: Jun 2009

Location: Norfolk, VA

Posts: 91

if you need fast turn around, i would get your company to invest in these 2 softwares .

https://poser.smithmicro.com/poser.html

https://www.anzovin.com/products/tsm2maya.html

level 3 luchador!

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# 14 25-05-2010 , 04:25 AM

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I did think about maybe getting a poser license, although it wouldn't solve everything...

That software you linked does look really cool though, and cheap. Going to check it out.

Thanks.

I consist of mostly water.

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# 15 25-05-2010 , 11:30 AM

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Join Date: Feb 2010

Location: Australia

Posts: 4,255

I know not what of you speak but phloam couldnt this be an idea for you to start?? if you say its hard to get Maya gear why not set up a small business on the side and charge for your time dude?? if you have the time of course. Sounds like a good business oppurtunity mate. Seriously

cheers bullet

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"A Darkness at Sethanon", a book I aspire to model some of the charcters and scenes

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