Learn Character Rigging For Absolute Beginners in Maya 2026

In this lesson we'll discover 3D Rigging, what it means and why it's so essential in the 3D Animation workflow

In this lesson we'll start our journey by experimenting a little bit with maya's interface and familiarizing ourselves with the panels and tools provided by the most powerful 3d software maya.

In this lesson we'll learn how to prepare a 3D model for the rigging workflow and the things you should always keep in mind when doing so.

In this lesson we'll start establishing the skeleton of our character by first creating the leg joints. Also we'll talk about joints and how they work in 3d rigging.

In this lesson we'll discuss the difference between local and world orientation of bone objects inside maya and how that can affect the 3d rigging process

In this lesson we'll complete the leg joint chain by adding foot joints

In this lesson we'll spend a little bit more time renaming and organizing our scene to be more efficient in the rigging workflow

In this lesson we'll talk about the difference between two important topics in 3d rigging: IK and FK Systems

Once we discuss the difference between IK and FK systems, we'll move on and start adding the IK system to our character's leg

In this lesson we'll learn a really handy tool in maya to save us some time creating the other side leg by mirroring the already existing one.

In this lesson we'll start working on the upper body of our character by creating the torso joints

In this lesson we'll create the neck and head joints

In this lesson we'll add the pelvis bone to our character's skeleton

In this lesson we'll move and start creating arm joints for the shoulder and the forearm

In this lesson we'll add the clavicle bone

In this lesson we'll create some hand and finger joints using a really nice feature in maya to save us some time

In this lesson we'll apply the IK system to the arm of our character and we'll mirror that across to the other side

In this lesson we'll get into skinning our character and the options we need to take into consideration.

In this lesson we'll look at some issues that may arise when applying the skin deformer to your characters and how to fix those.

In this lesson we'll discover a very handy option in maya that will allow you to tweak your joints placement after you apply the skin.

In this lesson we'll work with a tool that you'll love so much and that will allow for easy skin deformation fixing.

In this lesson you'll be introduced to the components editor. This editor is very powerful and will give you finer control over the weights of your character's skin.

In this lesson we'll get into some manual weights painting using the very powerful paint skin weights tool. This tool allows for further tweaking of your skin weights using a brush and a lot of settings to enhance the deformations.

In this lesson we'll be combining both approaches, the paint skin weights tool as well as the components editor to correct the hard to reach areas.

In this lesson we'll learn about more of the paint skin weights tool settings.

In this lesson we'll finish the skinning process by using the mirror skin weights tool to mirror the skin weights across to the other side saving you more time in the rigging process.

In this lesson we'll get into creating the main animation control of our character which is the Global Control.

In this lesson we'll move on and create the pelvis animation control for our character.

In this lesson we'll add a back animation control to give more flexibilty to the torse of our character.

In this lesson we'll establich the chest animation control.

In this lesson we'll build the center of gravity control which will control the whole upper body of our character.

In this lesson we'll discuss a really nifty technique that we can use to create a repository of animation controls and thus saving us some time.

In this lesson we'll start rigging the head of our character.

In this lesson we'll build an animation control for the neck.

In this lesson we'll rig the clavicles.

In this lesson we'll setup some elbow controls that will drive the twist in our character arms.

In this lesson we'll setup some wrist control that will drive the hands

In this lesson you'll learn how to start working with custom attributes to add more control to your control objects.

In this lesson we'll learn how to use custom attributes to setup and rig the fingers of our character.

In this lesson we'll setup some knee controls to drive the twist in the legs of our character.

In this lesson we'll build some leg controls.

In this lesson we'll be adding foot animation controls to give more flexibilty in animating our character's foots.

In this lesson we'll spend a little bit more time storing objects in dedicated groups for easy scene management

In this lesson we'll finish our character rig by doing a little bit of cleanup work and organization for better perfomance when it comes to 3d animation.

In this lesson we'll learn more about the freeze transformations feature in maya and the issues that can get in your way when cleaning up your objects.

In this lesson we'll wrap everything up by discussing the takeaways from this course as well as the project character you'll be working on for your assignment.