Instagram story viewer> @riginmaya> Posts

Rigging in Maya | Quick Start Workshop

@riginmaya

14.4K

followers

81

following

Build Production-Ready Rigs in Maya
Character • Facial • Props Rigging
Official RiggingPRO Course
See What’s Inside 👇

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

Download All

Good rigs need more than just IK/FK.

If you’ve been thinking about improving your rigging skills, this is your sign.

Bendy and Stretchy Limbs, Corrective Joints, Expressive Facial Rig, FK/IK Hybrid Spine, Hair&Clothing Dynamics, Global Scale and more.

These are the kinds of production-ready rigging systems you’ll learn to build in our Maya Rigging Course.

These shots in the video are students’ work from Part 2 of the course: beginners and mid-level 3d artists who upgraded their rigging skills in just weeks.

If they can do it, you can too 👇

🔥 Get the Course Bundle with 30% OFF
+ 2 production-ready rigging scripts for FREE

Hurry up! Offer ends October 3.

Link in bio 👉 @riginmaya

#characterrigging #rigging3d #mayarigging #facialrigging #3drigger by @riginmaya

1k

3

2 days ago

That extra control comes from Bendy Limbs.

Bendy Limbs give animators an extra layer of control over the shape and flow of the arms and legs.

Instead of being limited to the deformation created by the joints, the animator can:

✅ shape smooth arcs and curves
✅ push the line of action
✅ exaggerate poses when needed
✅ adjust the silhouette without rebuilding the pose
✅ add more flexibility and personality to movement

And that's the important part:

Bendy Limbs aren't only for extreme cartoon deformations.

They're an additional posing tool that gives the animator more freedom over the final shape of the character.

🎥 The rig in this video was created by one of my students during Week 3 of Part 2 of Rigging in Maya | Quick Start.

This week covers Bendy Limbs together with Non-Roll and twist systems, so students learn how to build flexible setups for stylized animation.

🍂 Autumn Special Offer

Get the complete Maya Rigging Course Bundle with 30% OFF until October 3.

🎁 Plus 2 bonus scripts for FREE.

Want to learn how to build flexible Bendy Limb setups like this in Maya?

Link in bio 👉 @riginmaya by @riginmaya

337

3

6 days ago

Still struggling with broken rigs and bad deformations?

Learn how to build solid, production-ready rigs in Maya from scratch, understand how they work, and know how to fix problems when something breaks.

🍂 Autumn Sale 2026 Ends!
Get both parts of our Maya rigging course for 30% off until October 3 ➕ plus 2 scripts for FREE!

Want the special offer?
Comment “rig” and I’ll DM it to you!

Every rig you see in this video was created by students from Part 2 of the course: beginners and mid-level riggers who upgraded their skills in just weeks.

Your next rig could be one of them 👇

#characterrigging #rigging3d #mayarigging #facialrigging #3drigger by @riginmaya

1k

35

6 days ago

He thought it might be just another over-marketed course. Then he built this. 🔥

Vladimir Zakharov @the.holydust came to the course from a 3D modeling background and decided to expand his skill set with rigging.

🤔 He also admitted that he was skeptical at first:

“There are so many courses that focus more on marketing and catchy promises than on the quality of the material. But here, everything turned out to be exactly as it should be.”

🎓 After completing both parts of the course, he created this rig and later wrote:

“I never regretted taking the course. Even after it was over, Anton continued helping me with some questions, and that really helped me in my work.”

💡 That’s exactly the goal of the course: not just to finish exercises, but to build skills you can apply in your own projects and professional work.

If you’ve been thinking about expanding your rigging skills and applying them to real projects, this is a good time to start.

🔥 Autumn Sale is live until October 3.

Learn production-ready character rigging in Maya.

Link in bio 👉 @riginmaya

#characterrigging #mayarigging #autodeskmaya #rigging3d by @riginmaya

324

0

8 days ago

One deformation problem. 3 different fixes.

Even with clean skin weights, Classic Linear Skinning in Maya can still give you:

❌ volume loss
❌ collapsing around joints
❌ unnatural shapes in extreme poses

So how can we fix it?

Here are 3 common methods:

1️⃣ Dual Quaternion (DQ)

✅ helps preserve volume
✅ quick and easy to use
✅ can be blended with Linear Skinning

But:

❌ it can preserve volume, but you can’t define the exact corrective shape you want
❌ its influence can’t be animated or activated only in specific poses
❌ not natively supported by most game engines

DQ works well when you just need some extra volume preservation. For example, on fingers or other areas where volume tends to collapse.

2️⃣ Corrective Joints (Corr Jnt)

✅ full control in specific poses
✅ lightweight for the rig file
✅ easy to transfer from the body to clothing
✅ works well for game-ready rigs

They’re great when you need predictable, reusable deformation fixes without adding extra blendshape geometry.

3️⃣ Corrective Blend Shapes (Corr BS)

✅ full control over the final shape
✅ can create almost any deformation you want
✅ perfect for complex areas where joints alone are not enough

The downside: they can make the rig file heavier, especially when you have a lot of correctives.

Corrective joints and corrective blendshapes can often produce very similar results, but each method has situations where it works better.

The best workflow is not choosing one method for everything.

It’s knowing when to use each one.

In Part 2 of our Maya Rigging Course, you'll learn how to build corrective joint setups from scratch, work with corrective blendshapes, and combine different skinning techniques to create clean, production-ready deformations.

🔥 Autumn Sale

Get 30% OFF the Course Bundle

🎁 + 2 bonus scripts included free until October 3

If your goal is to create rigs that deform cleanly in every pose, understanding these techniques is essential.

Link in bio 👉 @riginmaya

#characterrigging #mayarigging #rigging3d #AutodeskMaya by @riginmaya

2k

5

9 days ago

🍂 Autumn Sale is live!

Get both parts of my Maya Rigging Course for 30% OFF until October 3.

🎁 Plus 2 bonus scripts for FREE!

Learn how to build complete character rigs from scratch, master advanced techniques, and develop a faster, smarter, production-ready workflow.

Course available in English and Russian.

Want the special offer?

Comment "RIG" and I’ll DM it to you.

The rigs in this video were created by students from Part 2 of the course.

If they can do it, you can too 👇

#characterrigging #rigging3d #mayarigging #facialrigging #AutodeskMaya by @riginmaya

1k

40

11 days ago

Think you’re done once your FK/IK setup is working in Maya?

You build your FK and IK joints, set up the switching, bind the mesh to your base joints, and expect everything to deform perfectly.

That’s where many beginners get caught.

As soon as the character starts moving, you may get:

❌ distorted wrist and forearm deformation
❌ volume loss during rotation
❌ endless weight-painting fixes

And the more you repaint the weights, the more frustrating it gets.

More weight painting isn’t the answer.

You need a proper twist and Non-Roll system.

But simply adding twist joints is not enough. They need to be driven by the right setup, with proper constraints and node-based logic.

A proper Non-Roll setup:

✅ separates rotation from deformation
✅ distributes twist correctly across the limb
✅ keeps volume more stable
✅ makes deformation predictable in animation

🎥 On this video:

This is a student result from Week 3 of Part 2 of our Rigging in Maya | Quick Start course, where students learn to build stable FK/IK and Non-Roll systems for real animation.

The goal is not just to make the rig work in a static pose, but to keep deformation stable when the character actually moves.

🔥 LAST DAY: 7th Anniversary Sale

Get the Maya Rigging Course Bundle with 50% OFF
🎁 plus 2 bonus scripts and exclusive lecture for free

❗️Sale ends in just a few hours.

If you want to stop fighting deformations and start building rigs that animators can actually trust, this is the time.

Link in bio 👉 @riginmaya

#autodeskmaya ##mayarigging #characterrigging #rigging3d by @riginmaya

7k

18

2 months ago

Last day of 7th Anniversary Sale 🎉

Think you’re not ready to rig complex characters?

You are. These are real results from students who completed both parts of our Maya rigging course.

The course gives you a complete workflow built from years of production experience, so you’re not just following tutorials, but learning to rig faster, smarter, and with a professional mindset.

Ready to build rigs you can be proud of?

Comment “rig” and I’ll DM you the offer 👇

🔥 50% OFF the complete course bundle
➕️ 2 bonus scripts + exclusive bonus lecture

⏰️ Offer ends August 12

#characterrigging #rigging3d #mayarigging #3drigger #autodeskmaya by @riginmaya

512

26

2 months ago

Your IK stretch behaving strangely in Maya?
✅️Here are 5 things to check.

1. Wrong rest-pose length
If your knee or ankle joints have translation on multiple axes, Maya can calculate the chain length incorrectly. This often happens when joints are moved after orientation.

2. Incorrect distance measurement
Freezing transforms on the IK control or locator used for distance measurement can break the stretch calculation completely.

3. Incorrect joint scale
Scale values other than 1 on the joint's length axis can cause the stretch setup to calculate incorrect values and make the chain behave unexpectedly.

4. Uneven stretching
If one joint stretches while another doesn't, check which joints your stretch setup is driving. A common mistake is connecting it to the shin and ankle instead of the thigh and shin.

5. Stretch starts too early or too late
This usually means your default rest-pose length was measured incorrectly.

💡 These might seem like small details, but they can completely change how your IK rig behaves.

In our Maya Rigging Course, you'll learn how to build reliable IK/FK systems, stretchable limbs, foot rolls, and other essential rigging setups from scratch.

The goal isn't just to copy a setup. It's to understand how it works and troubleshoot it when something goes wrong.

🎉 7th Anniversary Sale
Get the Course Bundle with 50% OFF
🎁 Plus 2 bonus scripts and an exclusive bonus lecture until August 12

Ready to build rigs you actually understand?
Link in bio 👉 @riginmaya

#characterrigging #mayarigging #autodeskmaya by @riginmaya

437

0

2 months ago

Let’s revisit one of the coolest student rigs built by @cg_coffeemill after taking our Maya rigging course! 🔥

Here’s a look at some of the systems inside the rig:

🎭 Facial Rig
• Secondary facial controls
• Blinks, Lid Twists & Fleshy Eyes
• Mouth blendshape setup
• Eyebrow setup

🦵 Body Rig
• Non-Roll setup
• Stretchy IK
• FK with translation
• Bendy limbs
• Foot Roll
• Finger poses

🧩 Additional Systems
• Hair & loincloth dynamics
• Hybrid FK/IK stretchy spine
• Props
• Wings & antennae
• Global Scale

🛹 Skateboard Rig
• Bendy deck setup
• Automatic wheel rotation

It’s always great to see students take the techniques they learn in Maya and turn them into their own character rigs.

🎉 7th Anniversary Sale

Get the Course Bundle with 50% OFF

🎁 Plus 2 bonus scripts and an exclusive bonus lecture until August 12

Learn the techniques behind rigs like this.
Build them yourself.

Link in bio 👉 @riginmaya

#characterrigging #mayarigging #autodeskmaya by @riginmaya

1k

5

2 months ago

Even with clean weights (and good topology), some problems remain:

❌ collapsing volume
❌ pinching around joints
❌ loss of anatomical shape
❌ ugly deformations in extreme poses

That's where corrective joints come in.

They:
✅ add support only in problem poses
✅ maintain volume
✅ improve the overall shape
✅ make deformations feel much more natural

Good skinning comes first.
Corrective joints make it even better. 💪

In Part 2 of our Maya Rigging Course, you'll learn how to build a complete corrective joint setup from scratch and apply it to a production-style character rig.

You'll learn a layered ngSkinTools workflow to skin corrective joints quickly, cleanly, and predictably.

Besides corrective joints, the course also covers corrective blendshapes for fixing more challenging deformations.

To speed up your workflow even more, the course includes a script that automatically builds an advanced corrective joint setup with plenty of customization options.

-----

🎉 7th Anniversary Sale

Get the Course Bundle with 50% OFF

🎁 Plus 2 bonus scripts and an exclusive bonus lecture until August 12

Build the kind of rigs used in production.
Start with the right techniques.

Link in bio 👉 @riginmaya

#characterrigging #mayarigging #autodeskmaya by @riginmaya

7k

38

2 months ago

Most people expect Part 2 of our Maya Rigging Course to be all about advanced techniques.

But after reading the reviews, I noticed something interesting.

Students rarely talk about IK/FK systems, facial rigs, dynamics, or production-ready workflows.

Instead, they talk about becoming more confident in their rigging skills.
About understanding rigging on a deeper level.
About changing the way they think about rigging.
And about building skills that continue to help them throughout their careers, including when applying for rigging jobs.

That's exactly what Part 2 was designed to do.

🎉 To celebrate the 7th anniversary of our Maya Rigging Course, we're offering 50% OFF the complete Course Bundle until August 12.

🎁 You'll also receive 2 bonus scripts and an exclusive bonus lecture.

If you've been waiting for the right time to join, this is it.

Link in bio 👉 @riginmaya

#autodeskmaya #mayarigging #characterrigging #rigging3d #3drigger Cover slide introducing real student reviews of Part 2 of the RiggingPRO Maya Rigging Course. The slide explains that students came to learn advanced rigging and left with much more. The following slides feature real student feedback. by @riginmaya

137

0

2 months ago