What rig to use

We have to choose as rig to use, one that is free and we are able to work with easily. from past experience, I have some I really dont like working with, and some I find really easy and simple. As me and Nick will be doing the majority fo the character animation on our film, we chose a top 5 rigs, and then had to get it down to one.

MooM
Both V3 and V4 are nice looking rigs if you turn off the crazy front teeth, but I think we need something with more detail in the face. Also, when I last used V4, i got a lot of popping on the hips and legs when I moved them in certain ways, so I don't want to risk anything going wrong with the rig this time round!

Norman:
This rig is a Pixar rig which is used in their classes. Nick has used it quite a bit and said he likes it so this one is a possibility.

Max:
Max is very similar to Norman but i don't really like it as far as looks and detail goes.

Morpheus:
Morpheus is a newer rig. It does exactly what its names says. You can morph it into any type of character you like, male, female, small, tall, old, young. You can change every aspect of it, from eye colour to facial hair and hand size to nose. It's a nice looking rig but its quite complex as far as controls go, and we don't have all the time in the world to animate this film so I don't think its very practical if we use this rig for this.

Goon:
Recently I bought a book called 'How to cheat in maya 2010'.

 

It's basically tools and tips for a maya animator and how to get your animations looking spot on. I'm finding it really useful because it explains things in depth, even if it can go quite fast at some points. With it, you get a free rig called Goon. Goon is used in the book as the rig for all the tutorials and techniques. Its really easy to use and simple. It looks nice, and has a detailed face too. It's similar to Norman and Max but I prefer Goon over these two.

After some discussion with Nick and our group, we have come to the conclusion that we will indeed be using Goon for our film. Yay!