BEAR

BEAR is our in-house Maya rigging tool, completely self-developed, designed and written from scratch. It has been utilized in two animated features and so can proudly be called production proven. The core version is open source and available publicly, while we use an extended version internally which is also available for purchase.

Download BEAR

Open it and rig it

A rigging tool has never been easier to use. Open BEAR and start rigging as if it’s second nature to you. Due to the clear UI design and seamless integration with Maya you will be able to create and customize rigs right out of the box. Use the tooltips right in the UI to get started without having to read lengthy documentations. BE–A–Rigger!

CREATE

BUILD

DEFORM

design “vivi” by Vito La Manna

model “vivi” by Mason Doran

music by Nils Hoffmann (Nightflower)

Production proven

BEAR has been utilized in two full feature productions as the rig builder for all characters, props, and layout rigs. It includes a solid collection of components for creating advanced face rigs, full-body rigs, accessories, vehicles, and more. Component settings allow for a high degree of customization, enabling rigs to be adapted from lightweight layout versions to fully featured production rigs with minimal adjustments.

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Ready for your pipeline

Do you operate within a pipeline with very specific conventions? No problem for BEAR. BEAR comes with its own version and delivery system for serving your pipeline. The naming convention of the rig can be freely defined, even changed after the rig was built due to BEAR’s very unique and flexible naming convention system.

Asset Environment

Let BEAR do all the file organization. Version up your builds and share data such as guides and deformation between assets and versions. BEAR’s asset environment allows smooth workflows for managing your builds.

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Naming Convention

You have the freedom to modify not only basics like side tokens and control suffixes but also to determine the order of tokens in your node names. Choosing whether your node names should start with the side token or component token is up to you.

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Global and Local Scripts

BEAR allows you to add custom scripts to any build step and individual components. Incorporate additional scripted solutions for your very specific needs.

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Features

Fast build process and performant rigs


  • A full-featured biped guide and rig is built in less than 15 seconds. This outperforms any commercial and open source rig builder.

  • Playback speed of a biped rig is not only real-time, it performs at a swift 60 fps. Animators will be your best friends.

Intuitive guide system


  • Define all attributes of a rig within the guide, making it fully reuseable among assets.

  • Define the control appearance directly in the guide. Don't confuse yourself with additional control shape constructions.

  • Match guides to topologies automatically by using the Align to Geometry feature

Easy to learn and navigate


  • Work with a compact UI that has everything you need at your fingertips.

  • Get production-ready results within a single day. Add riggers to your team without a delay of training.

Full-featured Component Set


  • Nothing is left to be desired. Create bipeds, quadrupeds, advanced face rigs, accessories and even vehicles.

  • Use a variety of additional components like muscles, tweak controls and dynamic attachments to create advanced setups.

Maximum Customization


  • Create any type of rig by combining and connecting components to your liking.

  • Make your own custom presets using BEAR's intuitive collection system.

  • Simplify your rigs for layout by adjusting component settings while maintaining full compatibility with animation.

Pipeline Friendly


  • BEAR exclusively uses native Maya features. Use rigs in all departments without having to install BEAR.

  • Define settings per project and modify the naming convention of the rig to best suit your pipeline preferences.

  • Work in asset environments, manage your rig versions and build data, share them between assets and create deliveries.

Blendshapes Workflow


  • BEAR comes with a fully implemented, rebuildable workflow for creating blendshapes and pose corrections.

  • Save valuable time by transferring blendshapes between different types of characters.

Game Engine Ready


  • Use BEAR's Skeleton component to make single joint hierarchies ready to be exported to realtime engines.

  • Also the face rig can be scaled down and exported due to its joint-driven nature.

Introduction

Click here for introduction and tutorial videos.