Cubic Motion adds facial rig offer

Facial animation firm Cubic Motion has widened its range of services to include facial rigging.

The company already offers the outsourcing of facial animation, but has added the rigging service – which provides the underlying structures used for animation – as an extension to current and new clients.

Cubic Motion was formed only last year, but already has clients from a mix of industries including games (Activision), plus VFX and animation firms.

Nicole Mustoe, character lead, explained: “In the last few years developers have become really good at character rigging – Cubic’s core consultancy business is to help our clients animate their rigs as efficiently as possible.

"Nevertheless, some studios have reason to outsource rigging and it’s natural for us, given the talent we have at our disposal, to provide help with that where needed.”

Dr. Gareth Edwards, Cubic’s CEO, added: “We look to support our clients in the broadest possible way. It’s therefore fundamental that our services work with the widest range of client assets and internal pipelines.

"We would never seek to constrain a client to a particular type of rig – the client needs the flexibility to choose structures which are optimised for their engines and pipelines. In fact, most of the time, we work with rigs direct from the client, without modification. However, we understand a lot about the facial animation process and want to make that knowledge available to clients who might meet their rigging challenges more efficiently with outside help.”