However, taking additional steps in character rigging software will ensure more realistic animations.

Rigging artists may create hundreds of control points for a complex model based on how they want the character to move. There are other types of animation, but 3D skeletal animation has become ubiquitous in every medium using animation, such as movies, TV, video games, and advertising.

Rigging is one of the first steps in skeletal animation. When working with 2D rigging animation software, the rigged bone structure and movements will be simpler for a 2D character, but the concept is essentially the same as when rigging more complicated and flexible 3D characters in 3D rigging software. For example, the rotation of a shoulder joint will affect the movement of the upper arm, elbow, forearm, etc. The connected bones of a rigging are in a hierarchal relationship to each other, which helps simplify the work of animation. For a character, there may be arm and finger bones, a spine, and so on, but non-character models such as vehicles, trees, and other objects can be rigged too.Īnimators can use keyframing to move the rigged bones’ position, rotation, etc., thus animating the rigged model. A rigging artist adds a skeleton-like structure of connected bones to the inner workings of a 2D or 3D model using model rigging software.