Morgan Williams – Rigging Academy 2.0

Become a Character Rigging Master

If you’re working in 2D or 3D animation software, great character animation also takes something else: a well-built rig. Rigging Academy is designed to teach you how to rig almost ANYTHING in After Effects. In this course you’ll learn core rigging principles that can be applied to humans, animals, aliens, robots, cartoon characters, and just about any other type of creature you can think up. Once you know the basics you’ll be ready to handle rigging characters of all shapes, sizes, and styles. You’ll be well prepared to tackle the most challenging characters to rig, and have the skills to troubleshoot technical problems that may come up along the way.

Morgan Williams

Morgan Williams has been a professional animator and animation director for over 20 years. He has created work for numerous clients including Sony Pictures, the BBC, Comedy Central, and WGBH Boston and have been the recipient of several awards including a local ADDY®, a Telly, and a Best in Show award at Minnesota Siggraph. His short film work has been screened at festivals around the world including the Philadelphia International Film Festival and the Annecy International Animation Festival. Morgan Williams is a Certified Duik Instructor and a full time faculty member at Ringling College of Art and Design teaching and developing curriculum in the Department of Motion Design.

Course Overview

• Rigging for Rookies: Start by getting the lay of the land. Learning some rigging basics, make sure your tools are set up properly, and dive into your first lesson. Why do we even need rigs in the first place? You’ll know soon enough.
• Character Construction: Before you can rig anything, your character’s artwork has to be prepped. How this is done depends on the character design, and there are many ways to skin this cat. You’ll learn just about all of them in this section.
• Arms to Hold You: You’ll learn more about arms than you ever thought possible. In this section we go into jointed arms, puppet tool arms, and even combination arms and blended joints. You’ll have an arsenal of arm options at your disposal soon enough.
• Good Crafting: What good are arms without hands? As with any rigging task, there are options here. You’ll learn how to build mechanical hands (hands that actually animate) as well as how to make replacement hands which are easier to implement.
• A Firm Footing: Time to rig the legs. Legs are like arms with feet on the end, and feet can be tricky. Find out how to make everything work correctly and add some controls for things like heel and toe rolls. Break a leg.
• Core Training: Rigs often neglect the stomach, chest, and shoulders of a character. Learn a bit of basic anatomy and set up controls that will give your character a much greater range of movement and emotion. Don’t neglect the abs.
• The eyes are the window to the soul, especially in character animation. Learn how to build a face rig that will give you the control you need to emote with your character.
• Limbs Unlimited: Now we start getting fancy. Find out how to add and work with props, how to deal with level-swapping, and how to utilize a handy feature called rotation morphing.
• Running on All Fours: You’ve mastered the art of the biped, now let’s take a look at rigging our four legged friends. You’ll learn about some very important differences in rigging creatures that get around on four legs instead of two, and be able to rig up a tail by the end of this lesson
• Full Speed Ahead: Once you’re done rigging your characters it’s time to get them ready for animation. We’ll go over some very important house cleaning steps so you can tidy up those project files to make things as easy as possible for the animators on the job.

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