Them's Fightin Herds! - 3D POM Character Rig - Created with Autodesk Maya

Them's Fightin Herds! - Pom Overthought and detailed explanations follow.... First - I'll say that I'm in no way involved with Mane6. This was done just for fun and to learn some basic modeling and rigging in Maya. Coming from working on a lot of SFM horse stuff, this seemed like something 'different' but very familiar and fun to create, rather than just moving ponies around. Second - The glaring issues and problems seen in this animated turn around.... Believe me I see them. They aren't a one click fix. This isn't a rig like SFM (technically not even a rig), thats just bones with skin on them. The IK rig running Pom took hours to build (not including skinning to the mesh) and to get working and is incredibly complicated and fragile....but compared to a REAL studio quality rig, makes this looks like SFM, honestly. It's fragile enough that if I tried to fix the existing problems I would probably create a thousand new ones in the process. I am not skilled enough to troubleshoot Maya rigging yet. It was dangerous enough of me to even start with a 4 legged creature. Here is an earlier look at the skeleton:    • Video   And also an early look at the blendshapes:    • Video   I didn't use bones for face rigging yet. That seemed more complicated at first. Maybe some other time. There's other, more minor details that could be better, like the mesh is a bit rough in some spots or the animation is too floaty and slow. This was meant to really just be a demo of what I have learned to do, not an animation showcase that was made in probably 30 minutes. Third - speaking of learning to do this... I keep seeing YouTubers sponsored by Lynda.com and I finally dove in. (thanks Jacksfilms...) I watched a whole TWO (2!) courses and this is what I ended up with. Not the most beautiful thing, but also nothing to scoff at in such a short amount of time. I HAVE had experience in Maya, but only in animation. I could make cubes and circles beforehand. ---- NOT A SPONSOR! =P ---- Interested in learning this stuff? These are the 2 courses I followed. (requires active Lynda account, which you can get a free trial of) http://www.lynda.com/Maya-tutorials/M... http://www.lynda.com/Maya-tutorials/R... They do not include basic Maya use, you can try this one out for that, which uses the newest version of Maya, 2016. (I have not personally watched this series but I assume its just as good and thorough as the ones I did watch) http://www.lynda.com/Maya-tutorials/M... YOU CAN GET A FREE STUDENT VERSION OF MAYA (or practically any autodesk software you desire) WITH A VALID @*schoolname.edu ADDRESS THAT YOU CAN ACCESS! (or other current academic enrollment proof) The license lasts for several years PLUS as long as you have access to that student email, you can always get the newest version and get a new license. http://www.autodesk.com/education/fre... or you can be a pirate. Your call.