

This makes skinning an essential skill for any 3D artist. Some algorithms can come close but no character rigs have been shipped into production without artist intervention. It also serves as the first defense for proper deformation and a deciding factor on how much time to dedicate to other deformation.Īlong with the joint placement, skinning has a special place in the pipeline as it can’t be fully automated. In other words, without skinning, you can’t animate your character. Specifically skinning involves assigning each vertex of a model to one or several joints. Generally, skinning is the process of attaching your model to the joints, and incidentally, to the controls. The rigging phase mostly consists of placing joints, skinning, and building controls. But let’s start with a brief introduction… What is Skinning?Īfter modeling your character you need to rig your geometry before you can start the animation phase. Here are some tips to get you started on the process of skinning, specifically with Maya(although tips can apply to mostly any software). That said, some help along the way is always great. The process is very technical but practice always makes perfect.

If you’re getting into 3D character projects then you’ll need to work through skinning at some point. That means if you buy something we get a small commission at no extra cost to you( learn more) Tips 3D Written by Ben Traje Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links.
