Tag Archives: characters

Maya Face Rigging Basics – a Maya 2017 Character Setup Tutorial

Setting up a character’s body is one thing – but Maya face rigging is on a whole other level! It isn’t uncommon to have more joints in the face than in the rest of the body combined. In fact, you may end up with double or triple the number!

So how do we handle the complexity of all those joints, and the accompanying skin weighting issues it brings?
Continue reading Maya Face Rigging Basics – a Maya 2017 Character Setup Tutorial

Reader request: character artist degrees versus portfolio?

From reader Ashan, a question about character artist degrees and portfolio work:

I was hoping you could  provide some answers for questions I’ve been having – if I wanted to become a character artist, would a degree in digital art/art be more valuable than a solid portfolio?

So: are character artist degrees more important than a portfolio?

Continue reading Reader request: character artist degrees versus portfolio?

Joints or Blendshapes?

Reader Ric Williams emailed me a raft of questions about animation with blendshapes versus joints, mostly for facial animation. I thought I would post my answers here, as others might find them helpful!

Q1: When is it best to use joints or blendshapes?

Historically, it used to be that blendshapes meant pre-rendered, and joints were used for real-time stuff. Continue reading Joints or Blendshapes?

is a t-pose for characters a good idea?

The common thinking is that starting with a T-Pose for characters is the best way of building a model. However, after years of experience, I don’t use a T-Pose any more.  In fact, I think modeling in a T-Pose is a terrible idea, and results in characters that don’t look right or deform correctly. Why?

Continue reading is a t-pose for characters a good idea?

Mudbox tips for beginners

New to Mudbox? Knowing Maya or Max gives you a head start, but like all software, Mudbox has its own quirks.

I’ve assembled this list of Mudbox tips for beginners, based on my experience using the program since version 1. It should help you use the program more effectively! Continue reading Mudbox tips for beginners

Mudbox Character Sculpting: bodybuilder

Continuing the bodybuilder series, my Mudbox character sculpting tutorial lays out the process of creating detailed anatomy for a muscular character, a pretty standard piece that should be in every character artist’s portfolio.

Continue reading Mudbox Character Sculpting: bodybuilder