ABSTRACT
Rigging and skinning is the art of adding controls to your characters so they can be posed and animated according to the needs of your project. The rigging/skinning combination is probably the most technically demanding, and is often the most frustrating step in the entire process of creating a short animation. Some people are rigging geniuses. Most likely, you are not, and neither am I. That’s okay, though. We’re going to introduce some simple steps and concepts in rigging and skinning that will allow your characters to be fl exible to different situations, as well as to introduce refi nements as you go that won’t destroy all of your previous work.
You don’t have to create your rig from scratch. There are a number of great ones freely available for you to use in your own projects. Even if you plan to take advantage of someone else’s genius, you will need to know
