Contour Rig Tools vs Reallusion Character Creator
Contour Rig Tools
notionalpipe.comReallusion Character Creator
reallusion.comSide by side
| Figure | Contour Rig Tools | Reallusion Character Creator |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $40/mo | $33.25/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | — |
| API | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 4 | 8 |
| Spec score · 3D Rigging Software | 9.1 (#1) | 8.1 (#9) |
| Documentation | The HTML manual covers installation, licensing, tutorials, deformation, constraints, control rigging, techniques, API functions and caveats. | Reallusion provides an online CC4/CC5 manual, tutorials, knowledge-base articles and a developer wiki with content-creation guides. |
| License model | The product uses per-seat animation-only and fully licensed modes; fully licensed mode is subscription-based and may be node-locked or floating. | The software is proprietary: Reallusion retains copyright and source-code rights, and the EULA prohibits copying, sublicensing, reverse engineering and decompilation. |
| Purpose | Contour Rig Tools is a spline-based rigging system for Autodesk Maya. | Character Creator generates, imports, and customizes stylized or realistic 3D character assets for use in animation and other 3D tools. |
| Support | Product support is provided by email at [email protected]. | The company directs customers with technical or workflow questions to Customer Service and offers a Feedback Tracker for product suggestions and bug reports. |
| What it does | Contour Rig Tools is a spline-based character-rigging plug-in for Autodesk Maya. | Character Creator generates, imports, customizes, rigs and prepares realistic or stylized humanoid characters for animation and digital-content pipelines. |
Plans
Contour Rig Tools
- Animator ModeFree
- Rigger Mode — twelve months$40 a month
- Rigger Mode — six months$45 a month
- Rigger Mode — one month$50 a month
Reallusion Character Creator
- CC5 Standard$299 a month
- CC5 Deluxe$479 a month
- Character Creator 5$299, paid once
- Character Creator 5 Standard$299, paid once
- Character Creator 365 Pro$399 a year
- Character Creator 5 Deluxe$479, paid once
- Character Creator 5 Deluxe$479, paid once
- Character Creator 365 StandardPrice not published
In their own words
Contour Rig Tools
Contour Rig Tools is a spline-based rigging system for Autodesk Maya, designed for animation production and technical directors. Contour joint chains generate splines that serve as single deformer influences, potentially reducing weight-painting work. Its volume-aware spline deformation handles bends and twists and is designed to avoid pinching and candy-wrappering. Contour Bones include length and stretch controls, and bone CVs can be used as spline control points. Built-in IK includes stretch and anti-pop features, while constraints drive transforms and relationships between Contour chains. A Python API can create, modify, and query Contour nodes, accepting strings, pyNodes, and MObjects. The tool can drive conventional Maya joints for game-engine export. Version 1.0.12.1 supports Maya 2020 through 2026, except Maya 2023.0, 2023.1, and 2024.0; downloads are provided for Windows, Linux, and macOS. Animator Mode is free for animating with rigs and adding bone CVs. Creating or modifying rigs requires Rigger Mode, starting at $40 a month billed for twelve months.
Reallusion Character Creator
Reallusion Character Creator has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.