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Refining Character Poses Using Blend Shapes in Maya

by Delano Athias

In this tutorial, we will learn techniques we can use to push our rigs beyond their limits in Maya. Software required: Autodesk Maya 2013.

What you'll learn

In this tutorial, we will learn techniques we can use to push our rigs beyond their limits in Maya. Often times during animation, we are required by an art director to add more exaggeration or to push the silhouette of our characters in order to add clarity and maintain consistency throughout a series of shots. And that's the goal in this course. We'll begin by taking a look at the animation we'll modify and discussing ways we'll overcome the challenges we face in a manageable way. We'll then overlay sketches on top of our performance and use these notes to guide us in sculpting the character in order to add greater appeal. By the end of this course, you will have the understanding you need to push your own control rigs past their limitations in order to ultimately get the exact style you'd like to see. Software required: Autodesk Maya 2013.

About the author

Delano works avidly as an animation author at Pluralsight. Starting his career at animation studios like Shilo, Delano has developed a strong passion for his talents. His animation and rigging background help him teach and create some of the most-watched training on Pluralsight. A few of his favorite projects that he has contributed to include: Character Interaction in Maya and in Softimage, Rigging the Human Face in Maya, Rigging Sea Creatures in Maya, and Rigging and Animating Transforming... more

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