BlenRig vs InstantRig

BlenRig is a free Blender add-on for auto-rigging and skinning biped characters. It creates a BlenRig armature, a mesh deform cage and lattices, and pre-rigged weight-transfer meshes for automatic character weighting. The system is intended to provide a feature-film-quality rig with an advanced facial system. In Blender, users add it from the Object Add panel and work with its controls in the View3D sidebar; the Rigging Assistant includes automated guides.

BlenRig 6 v5.0.0 is described as working with Blender 5 and later, while the README identifies BlenRig 6 as beta. Version 5.0.0 added mocap compatibility properties to limbs and disables simultaneous IK/FK by default. The project uses the GPL-3.0 license. Its README links to a Discord community and the creator’s YouTube channel. The maker says sales of the separately sold Fredegund skeleton support BlenRig 6 development; Fredegund also supports automatic integration with Mixamo animations through the Mixamo Addon.

InstantRig is a modular auto-rigging tool for Autodesk 3ds Max, intended for keyframe cartoon animation. It offers auto rigging and skinning, automatic overlapping action, and a pose manager for copying, pasting, and flipping poses. Users can configure fingers and toes and add tails, hair, ears, and breasts to rigs; characters can be resized, and body parts can be stretchy. Animation tools include IK/FK matching and sliding, soft IK, knee and elbow snapping, and customizable controllers. The maker says animations can be baked to deform bones for export to game engines, using formats supported by 3ds Max. InstantRig does not support mocap data. Once a rig is created, it can be used with native 3ds Max versions 2014 or higher without InstantRig installed on that computer. Installation instructions cover dragging the installer into the 3ds Max viewport, manual installation, and quick launch. The free plan is free and provides one license for one user; each additional user needs a separate license.