One of the great things about working in 3D is the community where people are always proud and willing to show off their skills and help contribute back with scripts, code, tips, tricks and completed rigs. There is no better way to hone your skills in 3D than to see how other people have created a model, rig, or render. Having said that, there is nothing more fun than to get a new rig to try out, if even only to see where the possibilities will take you in posing, animation, and the creation of the rig as well. In that spirit, I have compiled a list of some of the most fun rigs by sifting through Creativecrash (on of the largest respiratory and marketplaces for all things 3D) and a few other places where rigs are available for maya, for free, for practice, and for play.

Read more on the compilation and have some fun!

ASHRAFI

The Ashrafi rig by Dawood Ashrafi has some nice face controls and the deformation are pretty solid. The rig does feature some great finger and hand controls that are really fine-tuned, and the rig also comes with a great UI and scripts. Download Ashrafi Rig.

Features:

Full facial setup

stretchy limb

fk/ik switch

full finger setup

full leg state setup

ribbon

elbow&knee lock

in 3 form none, man, woman

Gui picker

mirror pose

copy pose from one side to other

reset every limb

BIT RIG

The Bit Robot rig by John David Marte features ribbon spline arms, squash and stretch controls for the head, and custom interface selections through an in viewport scrolling display. Download Bit rig.

BLAKE

The Blake rig by Jason Baskin is a great all round cartoon rig with tons of features. BLake offers some really nice face controls for exaggerated expressions and the ability to change the body, clothes, hair type, facial hair, skin tone, glasses, etc. The controls are smooth through to IK/FK positioning and there are also some nice extended hand controls such as hand flex, splay and cupping. Download Blake.

Features:

Multiple appearance options and clothing accessories

Stretchy IK back with advanced twist controls

Stretchy arms and legs with bendy elbows/knees

FK/IK switching with FK/IK Matching for arms and legs

Space Switching for arms and legs

Clavicle controls

Elbow and knee pole vector controls

Full Finger Controls

Multiple foot pivots

Breath control

Ear controls

Stretchable head and neck

Scalable from the Super Mover

Full Osipa style facial rig

BORIS

Boris a great face-only rig from James Stone has the capacity for great expressions, and some really nice skin weights that can hold up to the extreme poses possible with the rig. An Osipa type face rig is included for some smooth control, and a guide is also supplied with the file. Download Boris face rig.

DINO RIG

Dino rig by Harry Gladwin-Geoghegan is a pretty straight forward rock-solid rig that comes with some nice textures…what makes it great is that dinosaurs are cool. The auto toe flop, and dynamic tail options are a great touch! Download Dino Rig.

Features:

Proxy/Low Res/High Res switch

FK overrides on the Auto Toe Flop

FK and Automatic Tail Rigs

Nostril Flares/Blinks

Updated Texturing/Skinning

Spline IK with FK control

Scaleable

Automated toe flop

Neck/Tail Orients

Jaw/Tongue Control

Foot Roll

FUZZY RIG

Fuzzy rig by Michel Urbanek (with rigging tools by rigging tools by John Doublestein) is another great expressive cartoon rig with direct face control to achieve facial extremes easily. The rig includes gimble helpers, and has stretchy limbs as well. Download Fuzzy rig.

PACKAGE MAN

Package Man by Javier “Goosh” Solsona has been around for what seems like forever. It is in its essence an old-school rig which is capable, although missing most of the modern rig features. Having said that, there is always something funny about a character in googles and ginch. Download PackageMan.

KIT CAR RIG

the Kit Car Rig from Bubbatt is a great car rig with simple controls. The rig comes with some scripts for interface controls and character selections, and also has attache to curve options built in. Download Kit Car Rig.

KOKO

Koko the dog rig by Jana Johnson was made in memory of the rigger’s actual dog Koko. A playful model and cartoon rig with on-face controls as well as a facial interface, this rig is expressive in extreme poses. Download Koko rig.

KRAG

This cute little dino rig created by Doug Hines is really straight forward and simplistic, but a really fun character to pose and animate! Download Krag Rig.

Features:

FK / IK switching

Head and Jaw can animate separately

Global Scaling attribute

Intuitive rig

MECANIC RIG

No, not a spelling error – another old, and very basic rig, there are not a lot of controls here so it is pretty straight forward. There is some popping of the joints if they are over extended and the bolts in the hips which rotate will snap back to an incorrect rotation if the leg is pulled to its limits, but the model is detailed enough that it is fun to get the machine walking and stomping around. Download Mecanic Rig.

MONKEY RIG



[Animation courtesy of Joao Pires – thanks Joao!]

Monkey Rig has some nice hand controls, a face UI, IK/FK but is missing stretchy limbs. The proportions of the monkey make it fun to pose and animate, and the rig is capable of some pretty expressive stuff because of that. Download Monkey Rig.

MOOM

Moom rig from Ramtin Ahmadi is a simple rig, but a great character to animate because all of the limbs are ball and stick you are able to really get some extreme poses with Moom. The rig does come with a selection interface, and blendshape sliders. Download Moom Rig.

RHETT THE CLYDESDALE

Rigged by Christopher Carson, Rhett is a capable quadruped rig with some nice features! Download Rhett The Clydesdale Rig.

Features:

Independent shoulder controls for each leg

Complete Fetlock control including compression

Auto control attributes for the front elbows which can be blended off or on. The recommended setting for this attribute is around 2.0 (or 0.0 to disable)

Stretchy spine and neck

Multiple mesh resolutions that can be switched instantly

Completely scalable

More than a dozen Blend shapes for the face

Back-up Main Control (Rhett_aCTRL, Rhett_bCTRL)

Embedded mini GUI with easy set up of shelves and buttons ( KeyAll, ZeroAll, SelectAll KeyBody, ZeroBody, Keylegs, ZeroLegs, KeyHead, ZeroHead, KeyFace, ZeroFace)

SCORPI RIG

Its a combination of a helicopter and a scorpion… whats not to like? It is however a pretty basic rig, and some limbs will pop if they are over extended, there is however and auto rotate switch for the blades. Download Scorpi Rig.

Features:

automatic rotate for blade switch(ON-OFF)

ik landing wheel

eye control

flexible tail

missiles

SINKA RIG

Sinka is a full featured rig from Suchan Bajracharya featuring stretchy and bendy limbs as well as fingers, and some pretty expressive facial controls. This rig is for non-commercial use only. This rig was built for animators to use in their own private exercises and non profit short films. Please give credit where credit is due. This is a free rig for anyone who wishes to bring the character to life and live the spirit of animation!

SIMPLEBOT

Simplebot is a great little character from Alex Puente, included with the rig is a selection UI, and some blendshape sliders. This little guy is fun. Download Simplebot Rig.

SPIDERMAN

Spiderman is a basic character rig… but its Spiderman, so it is fun fun fun man, watch the video and see. Download Spiderman Rig.

Features:

low / high poly

comes with textures

buttons (maya shelves) for easy “select all” controls

IK/FK

T-REX SKELETON RIG

Joel Anderson offers up this T-rex Skeleton Rig, the rig itself is pretty basic, and the model stretches in some areas if some pose positions are over extended, but it is a very cool little model and rig to play around with. Download T-Rex Skeleton Rig.

THE ANDY RIG

Probably one of the most used, most flexible, and most stable rigs around from John Doublestein. The Andy (short for “androgynous”) Rig was made for students at the Savannah College of Art and Design and is updated based on student feedback. It’s meant to play both male and female roles and be generic enough to act in many different scenarios. Multiple hair styles and textures are already available, but more can be added to change the look of the character. Feedback is appreciated and often implemented. Download The Andy Rig.

THE LIBRARIAN

Well clearly there is nothing fun or exciting about a librarian, this is a great cartoon rig nonetheless- from John David Marte. Download The Librarian Rig.

Features:

FK-IK blend

Stretch

Ribbon Controls

Facial Controls

Smears

Proxy, Low, High Display Modes

TRANSFORMERS RIG

This is just fun for the transformation set driven key alone. The model transforms from a car to a robot by means of one slider. The rig features a highly detailed model in both car and robot form, some face controls, and IK/FK controls for the transformed character. Pretty sweet right there. Download Transformers Rig.

Did I miss your favourite fun rig? Please let me know!

& TONS MORE FROM KEIL FIGGINS

The image above is an aptly named Khanklesaur with some great controls and some dynamics as well too top off the “most fun rigs” list. Actually just head on over to Kiel Figgins site and download many many rig sets… really there are a crap-load there – they are older rigs, but they are all fun! Here is a sampling!