Adobe Auto Rigger is AWESOME

The Adobe Auto rigger is definitely something to look into if you want to quickly and easily prep 3D Animated Characters (without having to learn all the difficult ins and outs of Adobe 3D Rigging.) It's a perfect tool for beginners.

Especially those that aren't really looking to create big animated projects, just small animated characters or objects that they can use for their websites, video content, video game development, etc.

Part 1 What's Adobe Auto Rigger?

Alright, so what is the Adobe Auto Rigger and how does it differ from Adobe Animate Advanced Rigging or Adobe After Effects Rigging? Is there any difference at all??? The simple answer? Yes, there is a definite difference.

It's all thanks to the third-party tool, Mixamo, which will allow you to upload characters for auto rigging (basically bypassing the kind of work that is usually required for manually rigging and animating in Adobe Animate and After Effects.) We'll talk more about this in the tutorial below. For now, all you need to know is that it takes care of setting up a character for you with only a few simple steps.

Thus, enabling you to quickly move forward in your projects if you wish. Whether you're intending to create a quick little animation for your website, or jumping into a video editing software like Wondershare Filmora Video Editor (which is great professional software with everything you need to start creating high-quality content that you can share with your audience.)

Part 2 How Do You Auto Rig a Character in Adobe?

Now onto our promised tutorial. Here, we make use of the Adobe Auto Rigger, Mixamo, in order to demonstrate how you can bypass Adobe Rigging by making use of Mixamo's auto-rigging functions or their pre-existing character models for creating your projects.

01Upload Your Own Character

To start, you'll need to visit ‘Maximo.com' and sign in with your Adobe ID (email and password required.)

You can also sign-up for free if you'd like. That option is available for those who may want to explore the available options first.

Once you're logged in, go to the ‘Editor' panel and prepare to upload a custom character for automatic rigging. This is assuming that you have a character design already prepared, of course. If not, then don't worry. The next should help.

02(Optional) Browse for Downloadable Characters

The best part of Mixamo is that it has a rich library full of pre-rigged characters that you can use should you wish to. These can be found under the ‘Characters' tab (shown in the image below.)

So, if you don't have a character model prepared just yet or have no intention of diving too deeply into character design just in general, you don't have to worry. You can just download one of the pre-rigged characters here and use them for your project.

03Rig a Custom Character

If you've decided to go forward with a custom character, after all, upload it to the Adobe Auto Rigger (shown in the image below.)

This is a very straightforward tool that you can use to place the most important markers on your figure (chin, wrists, elbows, knees, and groin). Once you've confirmed the placement of all these points, you can continue and come out of it with your Model auto-rigged and work-ready.

04Download Rigged Character and Begin Animation

It may take several minutes for the Adobe Auto Rigger to completely finish auto-rigging your project, so have a bit of patience. You'll be taken back to the main interface when complete, and you'll be able to download your now rigged model for use.

Part 3 Other AWESOME Auto Rigger Tools

Now, just in case you're interested in other methods of automatically rigging outside of what we demonstrated above for rigging in Adobe Animate and After Effects… We've included some other add-ons and tools that you can use with other popular Animation software. They're all a little bit different, so make sure to pay attention to the details provided (and watch the video attached too. As it should show you just what exactly each of these auto-rigging tools is capable of doing for you.)

01InstantRig - Auto Rigger

The first Auto Rigger on this list is ‘Instant Rig.' This is a rigging tool for the Animation software called 3ds Max. More specifically, it's a ‘modular rigging' tool. That makes it very versatile, allowing you to determine the features of the character that you are working with based on their attributes (no matter how many fingers, toes, tails, ears, etc. they need.) The tool is particularly popular with game developers, as it is a quick and easy way of rigging game characters — whether they be humanoid or beastly in form. (A free version of the tool is available, but a full license will require a one-time fee of around $35.)

02Auto-Rig Pro

Next, we have the auto-rigging addon for the free, open-source Animation Software, Blender. This add-on can be used very similarly to the Adobe Animate Puppet Rig tools — and is free to use besides. The add-on has a ‘smart feature' that is capable of automatically rigging up joints and bones of humanoid forms in an instant and can also be used for rigging up non-humanoid characters — albeit, it would have to be manual.

03Perseus Auto Rig - Maya

Next up, we have Perseus Auto Rig. This one works with Maya (which is a very popular professional software used by a lot of animation studios in the industry) and actually comes in three versions. There's the Perseus ‘Biped Rigging' license for humanoid characters, the Perseus ‘Facial Rigging' license for rigging facial features, and the Perseus ‘Quadruped Rigging' license for non-humanoid creatures.

04Auto Character Setup

Next is the auto-character set-up tool for MODO. This is a tool designed for rigging up bi-pedal characters — so mostly humanoid forms. But it does offer some flexibility as to the form that bipedal character takes. So, you can adjust it as needed if there's something incongruous with your design and the auto-rigger itself.

05IKMAX

For our last tool for auto-rigging, we have IKMAX. This works for 3ds Max and Maya (both of which we've mentioned before. It's very easy to use and adjust as needed — with sliders that you can fiddle around with the work through any problem areas if need be.

● Key Takeaways from This Episode →