What is Rigging?

Rigging is a process that happens within making Animation. A 'Rig' is a structural and positionable 'skeleton' that is constructed inside of a 3D shape or model. The skeleton controls the model and enables it to have movement suitable for animations.  A good rig will make a model function more efficiently and also have a sense of fluidity or realism, which is something to aim for when making a rig. A Rig/Skeleton with poor composition will cause all sorts of problems for an animator, especially when components are not made suitable for the model it is supposed to support. Even small elements such as labeling joints or controllers can cause huge problems when trying to animate a model with the rig inside.

Here are two images representing the 'Rig' or skeleton of a model. You can see in either image how the skeleton enables the model to move realistically and dynamically. You can also see the importance of accuracy with these two types of rigging. One is for a human the other for a animal. You can see the attention to the anatomy of either model and how the rig corresponds to the different shapes of the body in order to make a correct skeleton.

Rigging ideally should be done in a patient manner, as rushing into can very easily lead to problems that may not always be fixable. In this video link, a gentleman finds himself having problems with his character model while moving his rig about.

Bad Example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfHs6KI6444&feature=related

Although I am sure he knows what he is doing, it is evident that things can go wrong without your knowledge and it is important to take the process step by step, which then will hopefully help you identify problems or solve them before anything serious could happen.

Here is an example of a good rig:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXX1SyiYfBA 

In this video, you can see how the rig works perfectly with the model. Each part of the body has a variety of different control points and also has heavy focus on the weight distributions. The quality of the rig really shows through when in motion, as each part of the model is accounted for to look as realistic as possible. Bone and muscle is accounted for when the rig is animated, you can see that there has been a lot of effort here making the weight as dynamic as possible.

Bibliography:

. Google Images

. Youtube