Joint-Based Muscle Deformation Course
Course Description This course provides a systematic introduction to joint-based muscle deformation techniques. This approach has been proven in AAA productions such as God of War Ragnarök and can achieve highly realistic, stable, and scalable skin and muscle deformation for characters in real-time engines. Starting with traditional skeletal rigging, the course guides students through building a procedural, serializable muscle system that can be reused across different characters. Students will learn how to automate the generation and management of muscle modules using Python, enabling rigging artists and technical artists to efficiently build, iterate on, and transfer muscle data in production. In addition to building a complete muscle rigging system in Maya, the course covers how to implement the same muscle deformation techniques in Unreal Engine. Students will work extensively with Control Rig and Animation Blueprints to build a character muscle system that can run in real time within the engine. Course Prerequisites Foundational character rigging knowledge: Understanding of joint placement principles and basic skin-weight painting. Basic scripting or programming knowledge: Familiarity with variables, data types, basic control structures, and functions. Learning Outcomes By the end of the course, students will be able to: Understand and apply joint-based muscle deformation techniques. Use Python to procedurally generate muscle modules. Efficiently generate, adjust, and iterate on muscle system data. Transfer muscle data between different characters or skeletal structures. Implement muscle deformation in Unreal Engine using Control Rig and Animation Blueprints.
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