make Flexible ribbon rigs

Josh Carey reveals how to use ribbon rig techniques to create the right amount of squash and stretch in your animations

Simulate jiggle and bend in your animations using Maya

Ribbon rigs are fairly common in production rigs these days. They have a similar behaviour to using a spline IK setup, but can be easier to set up and have additional layering benefits. In the following tutorial, I will demonstrate how to set up a simple ribbon rig to simulate jiggle and bend, and then we’ll take it a little further with some advanced techniques.

The rig I’m using in this training was based on one created for the short animated film Wildlife Crossing by Anomalia; the ribbon rig technique proved pivotal in creating the jiggle and bend of the cartoon snail’s eyes, chest and tail. Using the same technique, you’ll be able to achieve similar results in your own animated projects.

We’ll be looking at setting up a basic node setup and how to use layers of controls to get the desired results – being able to maintain close control over your rig is important. Then we’ll develop the ribbon rig technique and look at advanced options and bonus options to take the jiggle simulation a step further. Everything that you’ll learn here will be the groundwork for your own projects, and from here you can keep experimenting with the techniques.

In the online Vault you will find step-by-step images that you can download to take a closer look at my settings and setup. I’ve also included my Python script code in the download so that you can try out the advanced options. I hope you enjoy the tutorial! For all the assets you need go to creativebloq.com/vault/3dw208