Raina Wu presented a tool that can create an nHair-based dynamic rig in Maya. Animating tentacles, hair, or rope has never been easier.

Raina Wu, a rigging artist at DreamWorks, presented a tool that can speed up work in Maya when it comes to creating dynamic ropes, chains, hair, tails, tentacles, fins and more in a rig. The tool is called DynaRigBuilder and it’s something else. The tool constructs an nHair-based dynamic rig in Maya that could be used for animating character hair, ropes and other things.

What you get is a compact panel in Maya that allows you to generate the joints needed, plus the IK / FK controls, and incorporate the dynamics into that rig. Place some guide markers to help the system understand where the rig will be placed. 

Features:

• Interactive rig layout
• Spline IK with multiple controls and length preservation
• Variable FK
• nHair Dynamics with key-framed animation as guide (attraction adjustable)
• Animation blend between key-framed and simulated result

The artist will also add volume preservation, squash and stretch, and a control shape editor as future features. You can find the tool on the GitHub page.