Alien Rig - Neomorph

robin berger

4 ratings

Character Rig: Alien

Rig by: Robin Berger - Open for Work

Asset by: Niklas Schulte Osthoff

1.Animation: Marina Inácio Sá

2.Animation: Annika Reichmann

DESCRIPTION 🧾

"Alien" is a fully articulated bipedal creature rig developed for Maya 2023 and later.

It was built using mGear as a foundation and expanded with custom nodes, expressions, and hand-tuned deformation systems for precise, production-ready control.

This rig was developed as part of a group film project, serving as an in-depth exploration of advanced creature rigging. It focuses on realistic anatomy, smooth deformation, and an animator-friendly workflow.

REQUIREMENTS ⚠️

• This rig requires the mGear plugin to be installed.

-> Simply drag and drop the .py installer into the Maya viewport.

• Download (version used):

-> https://github.com/mgear-dev/mgear/releases/download/5.1.0/mgear_5.1.0.zip

• Drag-and-drop installation tutorial:

-> https://youtu.be/Wf-JCkBVqKM?si=dxMMkYyjjavKqyEX

• Latest releases:

-> https://github.com/mgear-dev/mgear/releases

RIG FEATURES 🤖

• Full body IK/FK switch for arms and legs

• Stretchy limbs and twist joints for natural deformation

• Stretchy IK/FK spine (SIK system)

• Dynamic FK tail with secondary motion

• Multiple foot pivots for flexible posing

• Visibility and LOD attributes on global control

• Jiggle controls for subtle motion

• Breathing blendshapes for enhanced realism

• Extended jaw system and facial controls (brows, mouth, jaw, ears)

• Sinus curve-based spine wave attribute for organic movement

• Space switching (World / Local / Parent) for major controls

• Performance toggles for optimized playback

HOW TO USE 🧠

• Use Main_Ctrl for overall movement, rotation, and scaling.

• IK/FK switching and other attributes are located on the wrench-shaped UI controls near each body part.

• Use global_L0_ctl to manage visibility, LOD, and geometry modes:

• Toggle control visibility per body part.

• Adjust model resolution.

• Switch geometry display to Reference Mode for faster playback.

• UI controls include attributes for:

• IK/FK switching, space switching, stretch, twist, and tail dynamics.

• Dynamic Tail Controls:

• Adjust Damping and Stiffness attributes on the corresponding UI control.

• Simulation results are solved on the *_cns group.

• After animating, bake these groups before rendering to avoid playback inconsistencies.

ASSET & RENDERING 🧩

Subdivision Settings (Arnold)

By default, each mesh’s Shape Node has Arnold’s subdivision type set to Catclark = 6. If you notice slow performance, you can reduce the subdivision level to 3 either:

• Render Settings -> Max Subdivision

• rectly on the mesh under Arnold -> Subdivision in the Attribute Editor

If textures do not appear correctly when opening the scene:

1. Go to Windows -> General Editors -> File Path Editor.

2. Use “Repath Files” to locate missing textures.

3. Once updated, Maya will automatically reconnect all texture paths for the asset.

CREDITS 🔗

When sharing this project, please include full credit for both artists and, when possible, a link to the rig download:

• Rig by Robin Berger

• Model by Niklas Schulte Osthoff

• Rig Download https://robinberger.gumroad.com/l/Alien

On LinkedIn: