Rigging Dojo

News: Dates and details for Rigging Dojo 2012 sessions.

For 2012 we are improving a few things and have some exciting changes! First be aware we are limiting the enrollment and session number this year for our full mentored courses.

Mentored Session Dates:

 Session 1:  March 5th through April 16th  – Full, Welcome back returning students, we are happy to have so many of you back for more training in 2012!

Session 2:  May 28th to July 6th - Open to qualifying applicants that have preregistered. Space is still limited since Alumni and existing preregistered applicants get first choice but we currently have spots available.

Session 3:  August 6th to September 14th – Open to qualifying applicants that have preregistered. Space is still limited since Alumni and existing preregistered applicants get first choice but we still have space.

New!

New for this year is an expansion of our training options to include a series of guest workshops and seminars on a variety of subjects. They will cover VFX, Specialty Rigging topics like props and monsters and a Tech Art Core series for students that are not yet ready for Mentored sessions. We will have more details on new instructors, specific classes, pricing and availability once we have them finalized.

We continuity work to improve our process for training and are working hard to cultivate a learning network that supports our students and Alumni. To foster this growth we will be for the first time ever allow in qualified applicants in to the education site regardless of session start date so they can get more from their time training with us and be part of the community early on.

Expanded:

We have had very successful pilot programs like Train the Trainers. Train the Trainers allows us to work with traditional colleges and universities to improve their animation, game design and media programs while we train and support their educators, instructors and curriculum developers .  We are continuing to open this up to more schools and offer graduate portfolio reviews and job preparation for students of those schools for much lower cost than our professional 6 week mentored sessions.  Students and faculty get in touch with us to improve your education experience today.

Josh, Brad and Chad

We have had lots of  emails  lately asking about when the next session will start and asking for more information on our courses and cost and when the classes are and if we can cover everything we list on our page in 6 weeks, etc.

1. Session Dates for 2012- to be announced. Once we set the dates we will post them and if you filled out the per-registration form we will email you directly.
2. What time are classes? – We don’t do “live” classes so there are no set times since our mentors and many students are all working full time in production and require flexible schedules.
3. No! you can’t learn everything about rigging in 6 weeks. We list on our FAQ ideas and topics that can be covered but each one of those could easily take one full session  or a year depending on your level and ability.  Our sessions require a lot of effort and work from you, if you want lots of tutorials to watch then Digital Tutors is a cheap option for you.
4.  Most of this is covered in our FAQ. If you have contacted us and the answer to your question is in the FAQ we will not email you back. A good technical artist is a master of finding information and being self sufficient, reading and understanding our FAQ is a per-requisite:)

Session 4 Registration open: Limited Time

Registration  is open now for our final session this year.  There is a limited window of time we are accepting registrations so don’t delay.

Rigging Dojo Live Event with Austin Autodesk Animation User Group Association.

Join us Tuesday, Aug. 30, 7:00 PM CST-as Rigging Dojo and AAUGA presents Dark Art of Animation Layers by Brad Clark.

We love getting updates from all our alumni, especially the ones we can share with all of you.
Amy told us she has been working on rigging some quadruped creatures but she can’t show that yet.
We look forward to getting to see that when she is allowed to show them off.

For now enjoy her latest character rigging demo reel.

Amy Hay - Character Rigging & Animation Reel from Amy Hay on Vimeo.

Amy Hay
www.crackerfire.net

Have we improved your work, helped you find a job or you just like what we are sharing and teaching?
Maybe you don’t like us and think we are terrible sock monsters ?

Either way, take a second and comment on this post.
We look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks!

Josh, Brad and Chad

*not responsible for lost socks

Hi all,

Chad here.  As we kick off session three for 2011 I just wanted to say thanks for all the students who’ve studied with us.  Also I’d like to thank the “Friends of the Dojo” that are contributing really excellent stuff.  Jason Parks rocked the power python course and it’s now free to all.  This is the absolute highest quality information you’ll find on Maya and Python.  Check it in the archive.  There’s a huge host of other great content in the archive as well.  It’s all free and outstanding.

For alumni, we have the week long Danger Room training.  It’s a blast. Bird and Facial rigging have been covered so far, and our next one will be amazing.  Like nothing you’ve ever seen. More on that later.

Session Three is a go.  Registration is now open and closes on June 15th.  As always returning students get priority and space is limited.

Register here.

As for the founders, well, we’ve been busy.

Josh has been busy and he thought he saw a putty tat recently. Brad has been reviewing the latest from Autodesk and up to other nefarious tasks. I’ve been working on a couple video games, lecturing here and there and helping advise on some curriculum.

Hello everyone,

First up, we know that many of you want to see the video from our Live event with Jason Parks covering all the Python and Pymel goodies. Expect it to be released over the coming weekend. May sweeps coming to a close and this will give you something to watch until your favorite show comes back on.

Also for many of you, school is coming to an end as summer break  approaches.  Rigging Dojo can help your school refresh its curriculum, evaluate and train up teachers and staff and/or plan a workshop for your campus.  Check out our Co-Founder Chad for an example with is recent Lecture at Columbia College and Ohio State University and you can read what others had to say.

Josh and Brad are both also available for on site or virtual workshops and lectures as part of the Rigging Dojo Education Support Service.  Contact us for more information on what we can do for your school.

Speaking of speaking, Twitter has become a great place for industry conversations, job leads and even mini twitorials on cool animaiton and rigging techniques. If you don’t have a twitter account and want to still benifit you can search for #rigtip or #animtip and find a wealth of interesting links or you can check out or just check in on our page for weekly updates.

Some of our video #rigtips can be found on our YouTube channel or you can check them out here.

Keep watching for the video release of our Python talk.

Thanks!

Update: The video replay of this live event is now avalible in the Broadcast Archive.

If you missed out on seeing Jason Parks present his Python GDC class like we did, you will not want to miss this. He will be taking questions and has updated some content just for us (so even if you did see the GDC class, it will be something new).

Join us Tuesday April 12th, 2011 @ 9:00 PM CST-
as Rigging Dojo presents: Power Python for Maya (Plus) by Jason Parks

Watch it live on our Rigging Dojo Live page.

Python is the language of choice for nearly all Digital Content Creation apps today. With the additions that PyMEL now add to Maya, Autodesk has revolutionized the Tech-Artist’s ability to quickly write tools to speed up and optimize all production workflows. Come learn some of the key features that Python and PyMEL have to offer as well as how some professional Integrated Development Environments can change the way you write tools and increase the production speed of all your art pipelines.

See you there!
Josh, Brad, Chad

About Jason Parks:

Jason is currently a Senior Technical Artist at Sony Online Entertainment where he works on character rigging, tool creation, scripting, pipeline definition and maintenance.

“I remember seeing Jason on a videotape talking about MotionBuilder and its use at Sony and thought, I would love to get to talk with him as he seems to have all the answers. I got my wish a few years later when I met Jason in person in Montreal to talk about the then-unannounced MotionBuilder project at Kaydara and proceeded to geek out about tech art and rigging until we were forced to stop when we had to switch flights for home.  I have the greatest respect for Jason and I am glad that we  can still find ways to work together even if it is not at the same studio.”  Brad Clark-Rigging Dojo.

“I first met Jason on my interview at SCEA in April of 2001.  They were looking for someone with a blend of keyframe aesthetics and strong technical know how.  Jason was a good boss and a great collaborator.  For almost seven years we worked together designing and building pipelines.  He was instrumental to the success of the San Diego motion capture and cinematics department.  He could see industry trends developing before anyone else and there were many times where I said ‘holy @*&#, how’d you do that’.  It was a pleasure working with him.” Chad Moore-Rigging Dojo/Turbine

For more about Jason check out his interview on Tech-Artists.org

And see what he has to say from GDC 2011

Lastly if you are looking to dig in to Python in MotionBuilder then his Autodesk Masterclass : Python Scripting for MotionBuilder Artists is a great asset to have.

We are working on setting up some training for artists affected by the SOE layoffs. We are offering free “skill refresh” training with Maya and MotionBuilder  and a few other things for you. We are also talking with the AAUGA(Austin user group) to setup a networking and training event here in Austin.   We will update this post with more details soon.

For now  contact us and we will be in touch shortly.  There are some good job leads showing up on twitter and we are re-tweeting them as we see them on our Twitter page.

Thank you and we can hope that you all find work quickly.
Josh, Brad, and Chad

We get this type of question often enough that we should just share an answer.

QUESTION:  “I am continuing in learning Rigging by myself. Now I’m really struggling with one question, what to learn first, second and so on…. I’m going back and forth at the moment I really would like to have a bit of a clue which learning path to follow“

ANSWER:

Start with what excites you most. If you are learning something on your own the best way to learn it is to have a clear goal and work on something that is exciting or interesting to you.

Most of you have done or own many of the existing rigging books and DVDs that are out there and are great reference to have.

Any of these resources will work to learn from if you use them correctly. How do you do that you say? Well first before you spend time blindly charging step-by-step through a tutorial learn the tools that the tutorial  covers by reading the manual! Max and Maya have detailed documents describing the tool and how it works. If you don’t know what the tool is and what the options are for it, then you won’t have an understanding of why it is being used by the tutorial author.

So the start to any learning path should be the software docs, RTFM, they work hard to write them, if your learning something new you should read them. Learning to search and find answers is going to be your best skill during production.

Start with Scripting or Rigging? If you do not know how to rig, you will not know how to script a rig. Learning to script and program is important and if your very excited to code then learn how to program.  Learn python and proper programing skills before trying to hack away at a MEL/PYTHON/MAXSRIPT code in the application.   This will loop back to reading the manual because in order to script and program tools, it helps to know what is in the software, know your tools, speak the language and then you can extend and code for it.  Listen to ROB make the case better than anyone (He and I argue the details of his point but he is mostly right:) but don’t tell him I told you that.

Now that you have read the manual and are ready to go through your chosen resource (DVD, book, web tutorial ) just do it! If you want to make rigs, do the rigging section or if you want to learn deformations and skinning first, learn to make a skeleton and then work on weight paints and test joint positions.   Rigging and Skinning and Scripting can all be learned non-linearly but work on one at a time to start.

None of this is fast, it takes practice and research and more practice.  Once you get through and are comfortable with the tutorial then check out the same information in a few other places. Compare them and try adjusting or working on editing your first rig to try out any new techniques in the new tutorial.  Examples might be changing your ik stretch from scale to translate on the joints or change a reverse foot from skeleton joints to group nodes or replace expressions with math nodes.

Editing your first rig will help you learn very quickly because you all ready know it and tearing out bits and putting in new bits will give you great production troubleshooting practice.

Hope this helps some of you out.
Brad