About - Rigs of Color

About Rigs of Color

RoC is an interdisciplinary team of artists and coders working to create revolutionary rigs for your use. Our team, much like our cast of characters, is proudly diverse; Black, White, Asian, Hispanic, gay, straight, trans, neurodiverse, and various combinations thereof. Thanks to our generous donors, we are uniquely positioned to help tackle a lack of diversity relentlessly and unapologetically present in animated media. Building from academia allows for a streamlined continuous training of young artists on the fundamentals of 3D production, while combating a century of stereotyping in animation. Since 2020, 3D modeling courses affiliated with RoC have centered on understanding ethnic aesthetics, and developing teaching techniques to shorten production times, thus hastening student understanding of core concepts. The project found pre-launch success as a method to promote representation and was given a spotlight at GDC 2022!

https://bit.ly/roc-gdc22

We don’t just make rigs, we make artists and technologists who will continue changing the industry with anti-racism as the base of their learning experience.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What makes RoC different from other attempts to address the issues?

RoC is not one individual and does not want to be. Initially funded first by PIT-UN, we decided early on that we would make the most technically advanced rigs possible. So, we developed in-house tools and invented new workflows to mimic a professional studio model. Taking this on requires the same concerted effort a AAA game or Animated film would take. Our goal is 1,000 high quality models!

We use a studio model in our development, designed to train the next generation of artists and technical artists. FAME is our in-house rigging solution, designed to keep our artists up to date with the latest industry solutions.

Why have premium rigs?

Grants and donations are great, but what’s really needed is a self-sustaining operation that can carry out this work more effectively and efficiently. Premium rigs fund the continued expansion and development of the tools and pipelines we use to serve the community.

RoC has developed systems to make advanced rigs that don’t require plug-ins for easy distribution, but we will continue to create plugins that boost productivity. This of course means we need to fund continued development.

When did ROC start?

We wrote the first documentation of RoC in the fall of 2019, and soon after got funding from PIT-UN. The funding helped lay the groundwork for RoC. We made the decision to run our team like a studio instead of a research lab, developing tools to help us pursue our goals at scale, and to develop an anti-racist curriculum that fit into WPI’s project-based learning model. In 2020, RoC received sponsorship from WPI’s Teaching Innovation grant and a Summer Sandbox grant. These grants funded the two pillars of the project’s technological innovation: to make the rigs functionally better than current standards, and to develop stylized models.

When can characters be downloaded?

RoC will be open for downloads by summer 2023. We will launch with 8 free models and 4 premium models! This premium content is one of the key elements that makes RoC different.

It is ironic that black character rigs must be bought and sold. RoC is dedicated to making most of its content free, with premium models funding the growth of the entire library… 1000 models or more is the goal!

Are the tools going to be made available?

Not initially. We would like each tool to be used in production and tested before being released to the public. However, we are going to be releasing tutorials and tools that support our mission to help everyone feel comfortable creating characters of all backgrounds. Ultimately, our goal is to make publicly available tools to lower the barrier to entry for independent artists and small studios. Creating diverse characters with ease must be accessible to all, not just to commercial studios with in-house development teams.