How to Animate with "Heavy" in Maya 2024

We've recently updated the "Heavy" rig, one of the free rigs we recommend for learning animation. Heavy can be downloaded from highend3d.com, and you can read all about him here, as well as see how to use him to Animate a Walk Cycle here, and a Run Cycle with Heavy here. 

Arnold Render

Increase Gamma in Maya's Viewport

The original "Heavy" rig doesn't render well in Arnold, so we've updated the rig to make Heavy Arnold compatible.  To get hold of a copy of the updated rig, email us at info@animationapprentice.org

Heavy Texture Too Dark?

One small note however. When you load Heavy into your shot, his texture may look very dark. This is because Maya 2023 and Maya 2024 use the ACES colour space - with the intention of giving you a 'true' colour reference.

This works quite well for anything made in the ACES colour space, however older files tend to look darker.

To fix this you can simply increase the 'Gamma' to a higher number on the viewport.  See the image to the right to see the difference.

"Heavy" Resources at Animation Apprentice

• Meet "Heavy" from Team Fortress
• Animate a Walk Cycle with Heavy
• Animate a Run Cycle with Heavy 

To find out more about Animation Apprentice, click here for a link to Frequently Asked Questions. To sign up for our next classroom at Animation Apprentice, follow this link.