Hi all,
I am just curious if there are many studios that use the HumanIK rig (either in motion builder or Maya 2012 ) for full keyframe animation? It would be interesting to hear feedback on how it compares to more traditional rigs.
Mike
Hi.
We, more precisely me, use Motionbuilder for a long time now and i think it’s the most powerful biped/quadruped Rig thats available out there.
If you have understood the concepts once(The learning curve is not that flat!) the Rig is really powerful, rock solid and fun to animate with.
But be aware of Maya 2012 FBIK Implementation. It’s still lightyears away from Mobu’s one and just one big pain.
Greetz
Guido
If Mobu’s HumanIK Rig is so powerfull, why doesn’t everybody use it for all the rigs? Don’t get me wrong, I really don’t know why. What are the drawbacks?
It’s pretty simple.
Mobu cost’s more than Maya and is just an Animation Tool.
So normally only Mocap Studio’s buy Mobu because there is no alternative.
Most of the smaller Studio’s say why Mobu. Maya/Max can do nearly the same and a lot more.
Mobu is only powerful with Human like Characters and default Quadrupeds
Also Mobu is still a bit more complicated to get into it.
Bigger Studios all have Mobu in their Pipeline.
Greetz 
Yes there are a some studios, I have trained some on using it for just keyframe animation and did a master class based on that training.
By default the rig is not setup for pure key animation but it can be adjusted and now in 2012 the HIK rig can be adjusted the same way though there are still a few gotchas. It is the best version of it in Maya yet and now has the same character picker gui as Mobu. gone is the hack job that FBIK was.
It is a great rig to have as an extra layer to your own custom rig as well, it just gets a bad rap because it was badly demoed for so many years and the terminology of its tools made it confusing or new animators.
It really depends on what your goals and project needs are and what kind of TDs and Animators you have. I love animating with the rig because I understand how to use it and it is easy to add extra rigging over. It takes a lot of custom work to get some of the same features working even close to the HIK rig.
Concerning Maya’s 2012 FBIK Implementation here some Infos’s that might be interesting…
Yes as Brad said, its the Best Version of it in Maya but still a little nasty to use.
Yeah… there are some issues that didn’t get fixed from when I last looked at it… there needs to be a second HIK hotfix just for some of the iffy choices made for shipping. Bummer.
Ok, it’s more expensive but a great rig?
What if Mobu would get cheaper? Do the riggers out there have to find a new job? At least they would’nt have to do any standard quadroped and bipedal rigging anymore?
I’m a bit worried about it. I’m reading more and more about mocap and that it gets cheaper and cheaper. And now HIK.
For a beginner - intermediate rigger like me, with the goal to work as a rigger someday, it sounds very disconcerting.
Even if Mobu were to get cheaper (and it’s not happening anytime soon, I can assure you that) there is still a need for custom rigging. Which you can do in Mobu, when you get down and dirty with intricate relation constraints as well as the ORSDK and Py.
You can’t do skinning and weighting, that’s one of the things that separates Mobu from the other platforms. And even if Mobu suddenly had a way to skin - the need for a customized rig and tools is still high for studios. I will say that Mobu has made great advances in the past few versions, but it’s not quite the magic bullet.
lyko,
You could make the same argument for 3D Max. It has Biped and CAT, but the need for a tech artist still remains. A smaller/low budget studio will probably always use the built in solution, that’s why it’s there. But a company that has several animators will probably look into custom solutions. For example, the game project I’m working, because of the amount of characters on the screen, requires fewer bones than we are able to get out of Biped or CAT.
With MoCap getting cheaper I think that will actually create more tech art jobs. The best advice to give you though is not to limit yourself to rigging. Art tools, workflow, shaders, scripting, and rendering are all areas tech artists work.
yeah more work not less, and mobu can skin:)
[QUOTE=monster;10646]
With MoCap getting cheaper I think that will actually create more tech art jobs. The best advice to give you though is not to limit yourself to rigging. Art tools, workflow, shaders, scripting, and rendering are all areas tech artists work.[/QUOTE]
Rigging is kind of an entry door into a broader world of Tech Art. It’s always good to have a great rigging background, but be prepared to learn more in other fields.
Here is a great example of taking and pushing the HIK tools with custom rigs and tools and use what works,
http://area.autodesk.com/gdc2011/class2
Great talk.
good pymel and python fun in the second half also.
p.s. look at all the TX tds here:)
What are you talking about Brad, Motion builder is only good for re targeting mocap 
Side note: Nothing will ever be so awesome that it will replace riggers. Every studio I have worked at has used biped for SOMETHING and they still needed someone. Weighting can never be ‘fully’ automated and even if we get automated rigging for all types of characters, you still need someone to set that up.
Brad, I looked up Motion builder skining and now I have an urge to vomit. Possibly on you. That is terrible.
@Cyberdog7:
Brad was teasing you^^
Of Course Motionbuilder Skinning Implementation is a huge Pain.
It’s only for fixing Stuff…
Ha, yeah it is old and rough but still works faster and way better than Maya component editor. not joking. But yes, it was just a fix tool