Typically, the industry standard practice for character rigs are to have a visual control in the scene that performs a specific task and can be manipulated. They provide a visual representation of what they control, so you can easily interpret its use, and can be used to discern character left / right controls through color.

The control free rigging project represents my attempt to create a clutter free and clean animation environment using a rig that does not use traditional NURBS curvesMatthew Ziegeler – MattzAnimation.com

Character Rigs Without Controls

I am almost positive that there are other people who must have conceptualized or attempted to banish the visual noise of character controllers altogether.

Instead of animating the character through proxy using curve controls the user animates the character by selecting the character mesh itself

In theory it could provide a cleaner “interface” between the animator and the character itself. Imagine controlling a 3D character much the way you would with a stop motion character in real life.

The Control Free Rigging Project

Matthew Ziegeler shares a look at his “control-free” character rig, where the animator can directly interact with the character, foregoing the many visible controls that can come with a traditional rig. Having a character rig that doesn’t have the (what could be hundreds) of controllers visually cluttering up the animation workflow does sound like a welcome innovation. But is it really feasible?

One of the issues that comes immediately to mind is the fact that if there are no controllers in the scene, how to you know what can be controlled? Matt solves this by having a panel interface that will allow you to select the available controls, or show what control you are manipulating from selecting parts of the character itself.

The character cleverly uses mesh based controls, that are pieces of the actual character. This provides a nice clean controller free character, but also doubles as a visual selection cue as to which parts of the character will be affected. Have a look at Matthew Ziegeler’s Control Free Rigging Project here, and let him know what you think.