[harshat30]

Hi i have found Animation Mentor Rigs which is really awesome

Link contains 3 AM Rigs( MAYA FILE)

Character names : Stewie_crash
Ballie
Bishop_1.0[1]

Download it as soon as possible please coz the links may go dead soon....

Thanks a lot
Enjoy..........

Links:

[harshat30]

These Maya Rigs are really great to work with. But i am not sure that you can use it your reel or academics. Its copyrighted.

Practice with it.

And if the link goes dead then someone let me know.................

Use it and Enjoy.........

Thank You

[demps09]

Why do people go crazy for AM rigs? These are not magic rigs that turn people into great animators, its the training that does that. There are plenty of free rigs that are just as good. AM rigs are not some fast track to success.

Bishop is also used on so many reels now so its not like you will stand out. Also if you use them on your reel, or even post your work online you will be found out quickly. The industry is small, and AM is a very tight knit community, if you are found out you can pretty much kiss goodbye to landing a job in a good studio.

Bottom line....Everyone knows AM owns Bishop, you use it on your reel and the employer sees you didn't attend AM you wont get a job, and people will not respect you even if your work is good. Why? Because you are hurting a small company whose only goal is to create better animators and strengthen the industry.

Just be aware that if you do something good you will not be able to show it, so why not use Norman or Moom, free rigs that are just as good and if you do something you are proud of, at least you can show it to people!!

Just my 2cents

[demps09]

Edit -

[JohnyD]

Links:

I personally don't use them, but I suppose the main reasons why anyone would want to use them are for learning and inspiration. It's the same thing as the game models that are provided on here (metal gear solid, resident evil character models etc.). They are good study material if you want to learn how they model (topology for instance) or texture low-poly models for games. It's the same here, were you could learn how to rig and animate by looking at it and using it.

Knowing they come from experts can also inspire. You are right that there are other free rigs that are probably just as good and even better in some cases depending on the situation, but there are also A LOT of poorly rigged characters out there which one could find and then believe that it's the right way to do it, even though they've maybe made the spine curved and with 25 joints. Which is stupid for anyone who knows anything about rigging, but could seem logical to someone just starting out, who only has the bone structure of a normal human being as reference.

I doubt anyone experienced/knowing of the cg world (which you have to be to make a living off it) would use it in their demo/showreel. The ones that do, probably don't have much talent anyway, so it wouldn't really matter

[trn420]

i figured these were up here to show riggers how they should be doing it :P

[demps09]

Actually here is a post from Bobby Beck that is basically what I said!

Links:

I honestly don't know how much you would learn about rigging from these. The only thing I can think of are the Azary and Asari rigs which are basically a bishop rig with a slightly remodeled (and uglier) face. I don't know how to rig with Maya, but I can't imagine there being anything groundbreaking about Bishop's rig.

He just has has a very expressive face, but that is more the face design than anything else, with those huge eyes and big mouth. If you want to learn about face rigging the best way to go is Gnomon or a great book called "Stop Staring".

Links:

That is so true, any time you see something that has been blatantly ripped off, using models from some other artist and not giving credit, they are usually awful at 3D, I mean, its a tiny industry, we all know when something has been ripped off!

There is one person I've noted on 3DTotal and also CgSociety who has done this quite a lot, y'know, just keeps "forgetting" to give credit! Even though he is getting better I still have little respect for him, and tend to question everything he does wondering how much of it he actually made.

[Blackice]

I'm an AM alumnus, and sorry guys its the training that makes us good, not the rigs, and these are old as hell rigs these came out back in 2005 when the school first started. I would say the rigs from back then are terrible.

[JohnyD]

Links:

Hmm, I seriously doubt they are terrible. Rigging (in the sense of what these rigs where designed for) has not advanced that much since 2005.

I haven't taken a good look at these rigs, but it seems with the credit list behind AM (I read there were people from dreamworks animation etc. teaching there) the rigs created from the start should have been perfect for what they was designed for. Meaning, not realistic facial animation or whatever that some people might be looking for, but rather expressive character animation.

Basically I don't imagine the rigs to be great if you are thinking of doing final fantasy-like animation, with realistic characters where you need a lot more control and stuff like muscles/skin/folds. But if you are starting out learning animation, and would want to do excersises like the ones in Richard William's Animators Survival Kit, then they can't possibly be bad. From what I've seen from AM students demos, there does not seem to be much more going on anyway.

And yeah, of course it's not all about the rigs, but I'm just saying a good rig can help a lot in learning, compared to a bad rig.

@demps09: Like I said, it's not that advanced of a rig, but it should be great as a starting point, unlike some other rigs I've seen. Stop Staring is a great tip for people starting out/and more advanced too.

[Blackice]

Links:

Seriously??? I just told you the rig is nothing what the students have now, I spent more time with this rig then I care to shake a stick at, there so much wrong with it when you actually use it. Spend 14 hours a day for good two years and then come back here, and tell me how much the rig sucks.

If you want to try the new rigs and tools we have you should check out

Animationrigs.com

Its the company that handles the rigs and stuff for AM.

[JohnyD]

Links:

If the rigs were so BAD, why did the guys behind AM even use them?

Either the rigs were as bad as you claim they were and the creators of AM are really ignorant (which I doubt) for having used them in payed animation classes, OR you are a) overly exaggerating, b) talking out of your arse

If however you are just trying to say they are VERY simple rigs with limited expressions (facially speaking), then I would probably agree with you. But simple does not make it bad, at all. It's actually a good thing for beginners trying to learn the principles of animation, as you don't really have to worry about the rigs or spend lots of time on "less important" parts (like the face) in the learning process.

[Blackice]

Links:

Version 1 of the rig= Bad

Current Version 3= Good

Check the version number by selecting the layout node at the button of the feet.

But the big reason I don't like this version of the rig is all the uber cool tools we have don't work with this version of the rig

[harshat30]

Links:

Is the rigs in animationrigs.com are free to use in reels............

[demps09]

Links:

Oh yeah sure, so long as you don't want to get the job!

Just in case your English isn't good and that went over your head -

NO, do not use animation mentor rigs in your reel. They are copyrighted and belong to the school. You shouldn't even have them in the first place, as students are not allowed distribute them. But obviously someone did and deserves a well slapped arse!

If an employer sees them in your reel and you can't prove that you went to Animation Mentor.....then they will figure you stole them and certainly wont trust you with any of the studio's files.

So once again ...... NO NO NO NO NO!!

Simples!

[Blackice]

Links:

I don't think he said anything about Animation Mentor look again, and you notice it has nothing to do with that your talking about. People who form an opionion before they finish reading the sentence......geeez

But yes you are right this, using AM(Animation Mentor) would be suicide.

But regarding the Animation Rigs, yes your welcome to use those rigs on your reel, and you get access to the tools we use at the school.

[demps09]

Woops!...

Sorry about that, read it wrong!

Yeah the Animation rigs are free to use, well not entirely "free", you have to pay a small amount for them i think , but they will be excellent rigs.

I can't log-in now to check for some reason, but I think you pay for them, and get use of them for non-commercial purposes for a set length of time, depending on what you pay.

[xiaoyv]

thanks

[shiza]

Bishop 2.0 ?? anyone??

[muchograndes]

just use morpheus, its free, you can use it on your reel, and looks really cool.

[dubdope]

AM is discriminating people who wants to learn to rig properly, apparently it-s a monopoly mantained by these Dbags, it-s a fucking no sense to be so overprotective about these rigs, I never understood why all the drama with the rigs, someone please give advice

[zippy]

All the rigs and tools are made by animationrigs.com and are the same as the Ani-mates rigs. So animation mentor couldn't make the rigs available even if they wanted to, because there would obviously be legal issues with animationrigs.

TBH, rigs like norman (that are totally free) have much more flexible facial rigs so you would probably learn more about rigging from them. Bishop just looks really emotive because of his huge eyes and mouth, and he is a nice character design but you cant really go too crazy with him. Even with Bishop 2.0, in fact, more so with Bishop 2.0. If you put clothes on Bishop 2.0 you need to make sure you don't bend the body too much or you will get all sorts or intersections and skinning problems. There are better rigs out there for sure.

"Discrimating" "monopoly maintainted by Dbags" - Bit OTT dont you think? Its their product and they are entitled to charge for it, I'm sure you would charge for your freelance services right? And AM is far cheaper than most animation courses based in the USA so I don't see what the problem is.

To reiterate what muchgrandes said, check out Morpheus rig, its an awesome looking character and very nice rig, totally free and best of all pretty rare to see in demo reels which will help make your work stand out.

[Everest]

Links:

very cheap 18.000$ for a year, you could buy a car with that

[muchograndes]

have you seen other animation colleges?
their prices are atleast 30k. and AM produces really high quality unlike a lot of colleges. Not that i would pay, i just learn everything myself, fuck the system =)

[muchograndes]

wow thanks for those animates rig links, how is it we still dont have them? at $10 a month, i thought someone would've nabbed them by now.

too bad they dont do c4d stuff.

[zippy]

Everest - Obviously 18k (for 18months) is a lot of money but its about perspective. If I wanted to study animation in a regular college here it would be 3-4 years with registration fees of about 1.5k euro per year, I would also need to pay for student accommodation which would be around 6k euro per year, then there is food and other college expenses. I wouldn't have time for a full time job, and after all of it I still wouldn't have as good a reel or have made such great contacts.

AM allows me to have a full time job, have fantastic mentors and learn more in 18months than in 4 years in my country.

I'm not trying to cause an argument, just sayin that AM is really not bad when compared to other courses, especially America. College fees there are ca - razy!!! Yes you could buy a car for what it costs to go to AM, but you could buy an awesome car for what it costs to get as good an education in a regular college!!

Just do like Mucho and teach yourself, plenty of good stuff on the net to learn. Post work online, take the critiques well and make the changes than people suggest. Plenty of amazing self taught animators in the industry.

Muchograndes - I would imagine they have the same security so you would need to login every time you wanted to use it. Nice looking characters though, been thinking of trying them out for some time.

[zippy]

BTW, link to the Morpheus rig -

Links:

Supposed to be quite tricky to install, but it looks awesome. A friend of mine just did a very nice lip monologue animation with it and said its a fantastic rig.

[ankitgokani]

i am using morhpeus rig fro my showreel and i can say its the best rig i have worked till now

[sekhar.maya]

Links:

hi i hope there is one animation college how is just like Am .but its not on line .and the price is 60,000 rs u can see them in orkut by the name sky animations.

[sahil arora]

can anyone please tell me where can i download the Ssu rig of animation mentor....please please help me out....i need it