Get modular Maya character rig builder Mansur-Rig for free

Former MPC Lead Rigging TD Assaf Ben Zuf has made Mansur-Rig, his modular toolset for building Maya character rigs, available for free.

The software streamlines the process of building character rigs for animation, visual effects and games animation, and comes with an online library of free character rigs.

Assaf Ben Zuf says that he intends to continue actively developing the software, and that he hopes that making it free for commercial projects will increase its user base.

A flexible high-performance system for building character rigs in Maya

First released in 2021, and updated regularly, Mansur-Rig is an “advanced modular rig builder” for Maya, based on a dedicated C++ node library.

It can be used to build joint-based full-body and facial rigs for human and humanoid characters, although it isn’t an auto-skinning tool.

Key selling points cited in the online FAQs include the high performance of the rigs generated, its flexible, non-linear workflow, and its ability to rig non-T-posed models.

Other notable features include a readymade animation picker UI and a LODs Tool for managing switches between Level of Detail states of a character.

The software comes with a detailed user guide and video tutorials, plus an accompanying online library of character and vehicle rigs, also available free.

Now free for commercial use, including for selling character rigs

Mansur-Rig is now free to download, although you will need to register an account on the product website to install it, as shown in the video above.

The software is licensed for use on commercial projects, and you can even sell the rigs created with it, although users also need Mansur-Rig to use the rigs.

However, animations created using Mansur-Rig can be exported from Maya in FBX format: for example, for use in game engines.

Still in active development

According to Assaf Ben Zuf, making the software free “in no way means that development and support is [being discontinued].

“The hope is that this change will urge the community to use Mansur-Rig more, [so that] more bugs can be found and fixed, and new needs found and addressed.”