Understand the role of a Character TD
Think of the rigging department as the “special forces” of the CG pipeline, diligently working their magic behind the scenes using a deep knowledge of 3D tools, anatomy, coding, math and physics. Throw in the fact that strong communication skills are essential in order to be able to bridge the Modeling and Animation Departments–taking the models built by the former and turning them into something that can be efficiently used by the latter–and this is a hugely demanding but uniquely rewarding role. Our in-depth Character TD | Rigging Track takes students step-by-step through the tools and techniques used by animation, visual effects, and video game studios. Working through classes with a strong emphasis on practical work, they will learn how to build rigs for a wide variety of model and character types using the latest industry-standard methods. Advanced techniques for facial work, cloth, simulations, scripting and tool development are all covered, putting those who successfully complete courses in an ideal position to develop their careers in this highly desirable field.
As you complete each course, you will receive a certificate of completion for that course. In order to qualify for a course certificate of completion, students must complete at least 80% of the class assignment during the duration of the course.
Should you have any questions regarding these courses please contact registration@cgmasteracademy.com. Additionally, you only pay for the course(s) you take in a given term.
Rigging Artists - Technical Directors/Character TDs
Rigging artists--also known as rigging technical directors or character TDs--are tasked with building the inter-related series of joints and controllers (the skeleton) that binds to a model and enables it to move, deform, and generally behave in a believable or desired way for the animation team. In addition to body rigging for character models, there may also be facial animation to consider, along with additional rigs or simulation systems for elements such as muscle and skin deformation, cloth, and hair.
Get a better sense of our courses.
As you complete each course you will receive a certificate of completion for that course. In order to qualify for an in course certificate of completion, students must complete at least 80% of the class assignment during the duration of the course.
WINTER
Starts
3rd week of January
Ends
2nd week of April
Registration available on
Oct 09, 2024 - Jan 27, 2025
SPRING
Starts
2nd week of April
Ends
1st week of July
Registration available on
Jan 31, 2024 - Apr 22, 2024
SUMMER
Starts
1st week of July
Ends
4th week of September
Registration available on
Apr 24, 2024 - Jul 15, 2024
FALL
Starts
4th week of September
Ends
3rd week of December
Registration available on
Jul 17, 2024 - Oct 07, 2024
ELECTIVES 1
LEARN FROM AWARD-WINNING ARTISTS WHO'VE WORKED AT TOP STUDIOS AROUND THE WORLD
David Mooy
Senior Modeler
A longtime veteran of the industry, David began his career illustrating car accidents for the courtroom, which led to illustrating the gruesome injuries caused, which led to illustrating surgical procedures, which led to working on the VFX for dozens of fancy car commercials! This led to VFX work on a wide variety of films, ride films, TV series, and more commercials--which then led to modeling for five Disney animated features and four Disney “apps.” All of this led to his current career as a freelance consultant, modeler, and technical artist for companies working in advertising, design, VFX, games, VR, and big oil. And now all of that has led to doing one of the things he enjoys doing most: teaching.
Martin L'Anton
Rigging TD/Rigging Architect
Martin L'Anton is a rigging artist and pipeline technical director with a decade of experience in the entertainment industry. He has always been drawn towards animation and video games. Later, while studying all aspects of animated movies and visual effects, he decided to settle for the puzzles and problem-solving challenges posed by rigging and technical art in general, leading to a focused interest in comparative anatomy, mechanics, and software development. His favorite part of production is finding elegant and efficient ways to simplify workflows and rigs, to "Keep It Simple Stupid", in order to make for more intuitive tools, rigs, and workflows.
Martin has worked on a wide range of projects, from animated TV shows like Angry Bird Stella, to video games like Luigi's Mansion 3, visual effects movies like Guardians of the Galaxy or Okja, and to animated feature films like Adams Family, Superpets, and many other projects.
Grégoire Dehame
Rigging TD
Originally from Paris, France, Grégoire is a creature/character experienced rigger. Grégoire is currently, working at Floating Rocks in New Zealand, he is in charge of the Rigging and Pipeline tools development. Through a 2 years+ remote experience at Luma Pictures Los Angeles as Rigging Technical Director, he has the privilege of working on multiple Marvel titles such as: Spider-Man : No Way Home; Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness; Thor: Love and Thunder; and Shang Chi & the legend of the Ten Rings.
Minyu Chang
Senior Modeler
Min-Yu Chang is currently a senior Modeler at Pixar Animation Studios since 2020 with credits include "Lightyear" (2022), "Luca"(2021). Previous to working at Pixar, Min-Yu started his career at Tippett Studio making CG animals and digital doubles for live-action films before he spent almost 15 years at DreamWorks Animation as a senior Modeler, worked on both characters and environment assets for franchise such as "Shrek", "Madagascar", "Trolls", "Kung Fu Panda", "How to train your Dragon", "The Croods" etc. Min-Yu also like to learn and write new tools to import the workflow and he is looking forward to share his production experience with young artists.
Albert Hernandez
Lead Environment Modeler
Alberto Hernandez is a CG artist and environment modeler with over 15 years of industry experience. He earned his bachelor of science in Media Arts and Animation from the Art Institute of Los Angeles in 2004 and has been working in the industry since 2005. He started his career in the architectural visualization industry working on various projects that consisted of modeling, lighting, and rendering different projects for architectural developers such as Toll Bros, Caruso Affiliated, Hilton Hotels, and Brookfield Partners. He moved on to working for Sprite Animation as a junior environment modeler, working his way to senior modeler and generalist. While at Sprite animation he worked as a modeler for many different projects including Pac Man and the Ghostly Adventures(Disney XD), Kong King of the Apes(Netflix), Rudolph the Black Cat(Japan Feature Animation), “Snack World” feature and feature short, and prop models for Square Enix and Konami.
After spending 8 years at Sprite Animation Alberto moved on to working at Dreamworks TV as a CG generalist for The Boss Baby: Back in Business Netflix series Season 2 & 3. He also briefly worked on the Dreamworks HUB team as a CG Generalist for projects such as Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous and Kung Fu Panda. He currently works at Netflix Animation as a Environment modeler/Designer for the upcoming Netflix Series Blue Eye Samurai slated for a 2023 release.
Jon Krummel
CG Environment Artist
With over 20 years in the animation industry, Jon has worked on a wide variety of projects, including architectural visualizations , television motion graphics, commercials, feature films, shorts, and theme park rides. Jon found that working in environments is an amazing challenge. Whether it was setting up procedurals for a huge cityscape, building a vegetation library for a show, or modeling a single prop, it's all problem solving. Jon is always amazed that from a single polygonal cube, you can create an entire universe. All you need is patience and a sense of wonder. "It's like a giant puzzle that changes every day and I love it." - Jon
Michael Pavlovich
3D Concept Artist
Michael Pavlovich graduated from Ringling College of Art and Design in 2005 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Computer Animation. He started at Electronic Arts creating environment art on Madden NFL and NCAA Football and then brought comic books characters to life in DC Universe Online at Sony Online Entertainment.
Ashley Adams
Character Artist
Ashley Adams graduated from Sheridan College in 2015 with a BA of Animation and a strong foundation in traditional art before moving into the 3D animation industry. One of her first character driven experiences being in-studio at Arc Productions working on Disney's Elena of Avalor which led to working at Tangent on the Netflix film Next Gen. Since then she has had experience in freelance concept sculpting work for projects such as A Tale Dark and Grimm, Magic the Gathering, and is currently working with Spinmasters R&D team.
Mahreen Fatima
Senior Environment Artist
Mehreen Bazm is an independent contractor. She has been working as a Creative Director/Consultant in the field of motion graphics animation and design for 8+ years. She graduated with an undergrad in Graphic Design and a Master’s Degree in Motion Media Design from Savannah College of Art & Design. After graduating, Mehreen started her career in Manhattan & Brooklyn, NY where she was given the opportunity to work with well-reputed companies such as Motion Picture Company-NY, Vice Media HBO, NBC Universal, Hogarth Worldwide, Ogilvy & Mather, Loyal Kaspar, Click 3x, Spontaneous, Sirius XM, Transistors Studios, Animated Storyboards, Starz Entertainment, Motive Design Studio, Spillt Agency, Evoque data center solutions and many more! Some of the clients that she has worked with include MoMA, Adobe, Facebook, Ford, Charter Support, CMT ID Logos, The Profit, SharkTank, VICE HBO, Comedy Central, New York City Opera LED screen projection-Moses in Egypt, GE, Harley Davidson, La Soiree-Theater New York, CNBC Networks and the list goes on. For a full list please view website here: www.mebazm.com
She also taught Motion Graphics at Art Institute of Colorado and re-wrote the motion graphics online course for Rocky Mountain College of Art & Design, Denver Colorado. She now successfully teaches 2D animation online program at RMCAD as well. When she is not working she is hiking the Colorado mountains, soaking up the sun, traveling, drawing, painting, making music, dancing, or simply being a curious nerd!
Chris Flynn
Senior 3D Lead Artist
After working across all aspects in the 3D Industry for many years, Chris now happily resides with Dekogon Studios as a Senior 3D Lead Artist. Chris has been in the 3D industry for 12 years working on films, games, vr and mobile. Initially Chris was a business major ... however, during his schooling Chris had the very fortunate opportunity to work at SquareUSA where he was introduced to the incredibly captivating 3D film and animation industry. Chris quickly pivoted his education goals and switched to studying 3D Digital Animation and Gaming. After graduating from the University of Hawaii, Chris worked as a 3D Modeler/compositor on the hit tv series "Lost". Chris then pursued mobile gaming and VR simulations in Canada. Shortly after Chris decided to join Dekogon, one of the gaming industries top outsource company. Most recently Chris won the Platinum MarCom 2020 Awards with a real-time marketing VR Tour for Eavor Solutions (Business on Camera). Some of Chris's work includes working and leading on large scale AAA titles such as Scavengers, Crayta, Werewolf the Apocalypse, Enemy on Board, Remnant 2, Sierra 7, Empire of Sin and many more!
Testimonials
AJ
Aadil
Aaron
Abigail
Abram
Adam
Adam
Agnes
Liza is great. She's very accommodating and friendly and her critiques were very constructive.
Aidan
Aimee
Aishath
Alan
Alasgar
Was a great guy overall that explained stuff clearly
Aldin
Aleksandra
Aleksandra
Aleksandra
Alessandra
Liza was fantastic! She was incredibly attentive and helpful, always going above and beyond for us. I would absolutely take another course taught by her again.
Alex
Alex Wink
Alexander
Alexandra
Alexandra
Alexandre
Alice
Alida
Alina
Allan
Allan
Allan
Allan
Allan
Allen
Alora
[Louis is] awesome. He really wanted to share all of the tips and good technices to deal with real cases of simulation tasks for production.
Alvaro
Chris was great. I'm glad he's not only close with the Clinton, but shares the same overall passion for the industry.
Alvin
Alysia
Alyssa
Alyssa
Amanda
Amber
Amber
Amy
Ana
Anders
Andre
Andrea
Andreas
Andreas
Andreas
Andreia
Andrew
Andrew
Andrew
Andrew
Andrew
Andrey
Andy
Andy Fraser
She did it perfectly. I dare to say that she very experienced with speaking in public. I'm not just glad to go through the course under her guidance, I am proud of it.
Angell
Angie
Angie
Angie
Ania
Anik
Anna
Anna
Anna
Anna
Anne
Annie
Anouk
Antonio
Antonio
Antonio
Anupama
Arash
Archer
Ariel
Armando
Armando
Aromie
Arthur
Arthur
Arthur
Ashley
Asia
Azalil
Bakari
Barbara
Barbara
Barbara
Barbbara
Adam was fantastic! He always took the time to answer my questions and help me improve my project. I truly appreciate his advice, expertise, and instruction.
Barbra
Bavanya
Ben
Ben
Ben
Ben
Benaiah
Bethnay
Beti
Beti
Bhairavi
Billy
Blair
Brad
Brandon
Brandon
Brendan
Brett
Brianna
Britny
Brittney
Britton
Britton
Bruno
Bryan
Bryan
Bryce
Bukela
Caitlin
Caitlyn
Caleb
Calvin
Camille
Camilo
Carlos
Oh, Im so happy that someone so experienced like him gave me feedback. Plus he is a great person with passion about sharing 3D modelling/ texturing tips.
Carlos
Carsen
Cassidy
Cassidy
Cat
Catarina
Catherine
Cathia
Chadwick
Chang
Charlotte
1000/10 went well beyond what was required and always showed me clearly where i made errors
Charlotte
Chris
Chris
Chris
Chris
Christen
Christian
Christian
Christian
Christine
Christoph
Christopher
Christopher
Christopher
Christopher
Claire
Cléa
Cody
Cody
Cody
Cody
Cody
Cody Hernandez
Collin
Crystal
Daina
Daniel
Daniel
Daniel
Daniel
Daniel
Daniel
Daniel
Danielle
Danny
Danny
Daria
Daria
Dave
David
David
Davin
Debbie
Dennis
Dennis
Diana
Didan
Didan
Diego
Diego
Diego
Jared is a great teacher!
Diego
Divya
Sophie was great and really helpful through the whole course. Any questions were always answered with clarity, and showing us different approaches helps develop the way of thinking required for Houdini
Dominic
Dominique
Duard
Eddie
Eduardo
Ekaterina
Elena
Elina
Elisabeth
Ellie
Elvira
I learned a lot about the Houdini FLIP (fluids) workflow, of which I knew very little about before.
Emanuele
Emiko
Emilia
Emma
Emma
Emmanuel
Eric
Eric
Eric Hug
Erik
Erin
Erol
Ethan
The instructor was great and delivered what was promised of the class. Besides this, it was great to received feedback from someone with so much experience in the industry.
Ethan
Eva
Evelyn
Fabian
Farah
Just awesome. So many tips and even if a question couldn't be answered in the live QnA -they were for sure answered in the class questions afterwards. Provided great and useful feedback. Great
explanations, nice, helpful, etc.
Felix
Feras
Florian
Flynn
Frank
Frank Heffner
Freddy
Gaia
Gary
Genevieve
Geneviève
George
George
George
Giuseppe
Giuseppe
Gosia
Gregory
Grzergorz
Guido
Gunel
Gunel
Hannah
Hasnain
Hayden
Heather
Heaven
Heiko
Henri
This course has challenged me and many different ways that I otherwise would not have been able to. Nate was excellent at explaining things in ways I've never thought before and had done so in very clear, concise manner.
Henry
Hilary
Hollie
Hugo
Ian
Ian
Ian
Ian
Ian
Ibrahim
It develops your eye and attention to detail. This is an excellent course. Walking my instructor through my grooming scene in Houdini and getting real time feedback on things was perfect, I loved that. Having your work reviewed by such a talent really made me want to push the hard work for me. I'm grateful for that because you feel always motivated.
Ignacio
Ilona
Isabella
Isabella
Itziar
Ivan
Ivy
Ivy
JD
JD
Jacek
Jacob
Jacob
Jacob
Ryan was great! always willing to entertain off the beat questions
Jacob
Jacob DeRemer
Jacqueline
Jacqueline
Jahrut
Jaikumar
Jaime Molina
Jake
Jake
James
James
James Pickard
James Pickard
James Pickard
James Rumfelt
James Tupper
James Wright
Jane S. Kim
Janneke van den Biggelaar
Jannes Lauwers
Jared
Jared Chavez
Jason
Jason
Javier
Javier
Javier
Ethan it's an awesome teacher, the way he answered all of our questions was super clear, and even if he came across a problem he doesn't know 100% he looks into it to teach us the way to solve it
Javier
Jay
Jayleen
Jaylynn
Jaylynn
Jean
Jean
Jeff
Jeff
Jeff
Jeff
Jeffery
Jenn
Jennifer
Jenny
Jenny
Jenny
Jeremy
Jerome
Jerome
Diego is awesome! He's very friendly and easy to talk to; he was always happy to answer our questions and extremely encouraging about continuing to learn and grow as artists. He provided a lot of great demos in the Q&As and always gave detailed and thoughtful answers to both specific technical questions and general career related questions. It was a truly great experience to have Diego as an instructor; his enthusiasm for his craft really comes through and his willingness to share his own career experiences and anecdotes is greatly appreciated.
Jerry
Jess
Chris is a great teacher who was always very positive and encouraging, and gave helpful feedback.
Jess
Jesse
Jessica
Josh is a very kind, patient and knowledgeable person. It’s clear that he enjoys sharing his knowledge with everyone, and he does it in a very natural way.
Jessica
Encouraged me to dive into an area that I was unfamiliar with at the start of the course.
Jesus
Joakim
Joaquin
John
John
John
John
John
John
John S.
Johnathan
Jon
Jonah
Jonah
Jonathan
Jonathan
Jonathan
Jordan
Jordi
Jose
Adam was an excellent instructor and offered very insightful critiques and alternative processes that spoke to our individual designs. Always in a thoughtful, patient, and professional manner. As an instructor for almost 20yrs, I'd say you have a winner in Adam Beardall.
Jose
Joseph
Joseph
Joseph
Josh
Joshua
Joshua
Joshua
Joshua
Joshua
Joshua
Joshua
Ashley was extremely thorough in her answers to questions and feedback advice, as well as in providing links to external resources related to the questions and feedback.
Joshua
Joshua Williams
Josiah
José
Joubert
Jozsef
Juan
Juan
Judith
Julia
Julian
Diego is awesome! super patient and encouraging.
Julie
Junard
Justin
Justin
Ka
It really helped me understand some of the intricacies about the pipeline for animated grooms. The reviews were also really helpful.
Kamran
Karim
Karina
Karolina
Karolina
Kat
Katarzyna
Kate
Kate
Kate
Katianna
Katsushi
Kayla
Kean
Keila
Kelly
Ed really showed me great techniques to make sure I got a realistic water simulation. Amazing course!
Kenneth
Kenny
Kevin
Khadeeja
Khadeeja
Khaldoun
Khaldoun
Khang
Kimberly
Kirsten
Knut
Kristen
Kuan
Kyle
Kyle
Lance
Laura
Laura
Laura
Josh really sets up a professional standard for us on how to approach real-time vfx and I am now more comfortable with going through the whole creative process of VFX in UE5.
Laura
Laurel
Lauren
Laurence
Laurent
Laurie
Lawrence
She is amazing! I'm really happy to have signed up with Ashley, her feedback was very constructive and supportive and I really appreciated that as a beginner.
Lei
Leigh
Lev
Lewis
Liberty
Lily
Lorraine
Seemed like she was very knowledgeable about the software.
Lou
Louise
Loup
Lovina
Luca
Lucas
Lucca
Lucia
Luis
Luis
Lukas
Luke
Luke Davenport
Mackenzie
Madeline
Majid
Makoto
Malin
Marcellino
Liza was an awesome instructor. She always provided good feedback.
Marco
Chris was an absolutely amazing instructor. You can tell he is a very nice guy who is passionate about what he does.
Marcus
Margareta
Maria
Marian
Marina
Mario
Mark
Mark
Mark
Martha
Martin
I love how close of a conversation you can have with him. How he seems to have a working example for nearly everything, it's really helpful to visualize if a specific question is more technical.
Martin
Martino
Mary
Massiel
Matt
Matthew
Maureen
Max
Andrew is a great instructor. I think I learned the most from his feedbacks and Q&As.
Max
Sophie made the fundamentals very clear and didn't hesitate to show/explain it again whenever it was needeed. She helped me work with a lot more attention to these fundamentals. The VEX/VOP parts were also super useful and want to dig deeper in. Thanks again to Sophie Noël !
Max
Maxime
Mayenna
Megan
Mei-li
Meihe
Meihe
Melis
Melissa
Mert
Michael
Michael
Michael
Michael
Really helped me get a better emphasis on material definition as well as gave me the confidence to do something like texture a face from scratch
Michael
Instructor was great, gave real world production examples and treated all students respectfully
Michael
Michelle
Michelle
Michka
Mickey
Mika
Mike
Mike
Minnie
Mio
Miranda
I now know how to use substance painter, texture a face, and render a scene in marmoset. Incredibly useful.
Miriam
Mitch
Mohammed
Mohsen
Molly
Molly
Molly Gilmore
Monica
Morgan
Murray
Myoungjun
Nancy
Nate is an exceptional teacher. It changed my way of taking on new projects and opened up new opportunities and horizons as a freelance artist. I cannot thank him enough for how valuable it was to take Nate's class.
Natalia
Natalie
Natalie
Nathan
Nebojsa
Neil
Neil
Nestor
Nicholas
Nick
Nick
Nicolas
Nicolas
Nicolas
Nicolas
Nicole
Nicole
Nicole
The course helped answer many questions I had coming in, both about the industry and about MAYA. I learned new ways to model things that I wouldn’t have been able to before.
Nidhi
Nienke
Nikhil
Nikolay
Nora
Odin
Okan Beyit
Okito
Olaf
Olesya
Olga
Olga
Oliver
Owen
Pablo
Pam
Parker
Parthena
Patricia
Paula
Paulina
Peter
Peter
Peter
Peter
Peter
Philip
Preston
Rachel
Radoslaw
It was great to have an instructor with such a wide background in animation as well as a concentration in one specific aspect.
Raymond
Rebecca
Rene
Rex
Ricardo
Ricardo
Ethan is a great artist and also a great instructor, he helped with every problem I had even when they were not related to groom so that was great.
Ricardo
Richard
Rick
Robert
Robin
Rodrigo
Roel
Roger
Rosana
Rosanna
Rosemary
Roxsy
Roy
Roy
Russel
Josh did an exceptionally through job of explaining each step, and explaining the purpose of each step. His feedback and willingness to see his students improve is truly inspiring.
Russel Aronchick
Ryan
Ryan
Saachi
Saem
Sahir
Sal
Sal
Salomey
Sam
Sam
Samuel
Sandra
Sandra
Sandra
Santosh
Sara
Sara
Sarah
Sarah
Sarah
Sarah
Sascha
Sawyer
Sawyer
Scott
Scott
Scott
Scott
Emiel was simply perfect. He is easy to listen to, he has a mountain of knowledge, he teaches really well, doesn't overwhelm with too much information. I would personally prefer the course to be 2 or 4 weeks longer and taught exclusively by Emiel.
Scott
Scott Gudahl
Sean
Sean
Sebastian
Serena
Sergio
Sergio
Seven
Shannon
Shaun
Shawn
Sheryl
Sheryl
Ashley is the most inspiring Zbrush mage! Her live QAs are super fun and get us hyped about trying something new in the software and in our designs! Found my love for Zbrush with her demos and feedback and hope to learn more :D
Shruti
Sian
Sian
Sian
Silvia
Simón
Sofia
Sonal
Sonja
Sonja
Stacey
Stephen
Stephen
Sterling
Stuart
Stuart
Student testimonial here
Student Name
Student testimonial here
Student Name
Sudhir
Susanna
Takahiro
Takahiro
Tam
Tami
Taylor
Taylor
Taylor
Tessera
I gained a much better understanding of the project flow for game asset creation and how UVs are handled for video games.
Thomas P
Tiffany
Tim
Tim
Timothy
Tobias
Tom
Tomer
Tommi
Travis
Travis
Travis
Tricia
Tristan
Trung
Tyler
Tyler
Tyler
Tyler
Ula
Ulina
Vaimiti
Valentina
Valerie
Vedant
Vincent Vaillancourt
Virendra
Vitaly
Test test tststsdf
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Vlad Test
Magnificent transformation--strongly recommend Louis and his course to every person who wants to advance their skills.
Vu
Wesley
Westley
Wiebe
William
William
Xavier
Xaxier
Xuan
Yaara
Yann
Yue
Yusuf
Yusuf
I really enjoyed learning from Emmanuel. He was very humble and knowledgeable. I can tell he put a lot of thought and time in using our face to face time wisely by addressing as many overall issues the class was having with their projects via his demos and lectures. He also made himself available for industry based questions that are so important, yet outside of the realm of just learning how to create.
Zach
Zachary
Zachary
Zahra
Zamir
Zeth
Zeth
Zi
Zian
Zoltan
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