Freeform Animation Rigging - Evolving the Animation Pipeline

Explore freeform animation rigging techniques in this 41-minute GDC Virtual Talk from 2020. Discover how Unity's Animation Rigging package enables animators to preserve motion content while modifying control rig structures without rigging specialist assistance. Learn about bidirectional motion transfer, parent space switching, and working with baked keyframes. Gain insights into production use cases, including object interaction and motion variants. Compare traditional animation pipelines with the new sandbox approach, and understand how these evolving techniques can streamline your animation workflow in Unity 2020.1 and beyond.

Intro
Contents
Freeform Animation Workflows
What is Freeform Animation?
Additional Learning Resources
Example Character Creation Pipeline
Character Creation Pipeline: Rigging
Character Creation Pipeline Control Rig
Animation Authoring (example game production)
Animation Authoring (counter-animation example)
common solution: Uber-Rig
Iteration (non-destructive rig updates)
Iteration (destructive rig updates)
Varying Rig Types (example game production)
solution: Modular Rigging
Control Rig Requirements...
Freeform Animation Rigging - Definition
Freeform Animation Rigging - Demonstration • Bidirectional motion transfer - skeleton to control rig retargeting
Parent Space Switching - Animation workflow
Working with Baked Keyframes - Solutions Dense keyframe data (high fidelity)
Freeform Animation Rigging in Unity
Animation Rigging, Unity 2020.1
Production Use Cases
Object Interaction - with runtime rigging
Motion Variants - Carrying a heavy object
Unity Animation User Journey
Animation Pipeline - the old way Old:rioging builds control rigs for animators
Animation Pipeline → Sandbox
Thank you