animation tool
Armature: Artist+AI Rigging
Armature: Artist+AI Rigging by Adrian Melian (FabricatorStudio) is standalone AI rigging and skinning software for Windows. Load a character mesh, fit its proportions, build a skeleton from modules, generate skin weights in one press, then paint them by hand. It exports one USD file with mesh, skeleton, weights and Control Rig build data, and a Maya Control Rig builder ships alongside. Runs locally. Free for indie and commercial work under $100k a year.
Free
v2.0
Free
Free
personal + commercial under $100k/yr
Free for personal, learning and portfolio work, and for commercial use while your revenue is under $100k a year.
Get it free
Commercial
£110.00
per artist, one time
For studios and artists above $100k a year. Pay once per artist, yours outright, no subscription.
Buy commercial
One-time commercial licence, per artist
- Free for personal, learning and portfolio work.
- Free for commercial use while your revenue is under $100k a year.
- Above $100k a year: one payment per artist. No subscription, no expiry.
- Includes updates.
- Studios and larger teams: volume seats and invoice billing, get in touch.
- v2.0.2
- Version
- 187
- Downloads
- 12 Aug 2026
- Last updated
- 11 Aug 2026
- Released
- Licence
- Free under $100k a year
- File size
- 131 MB
- Platform
- Windows, standalone
- Commercial
- $149 per seat, one time
- AI skinning
- Runs locally, no cloud
Instant download Vetted creator
What it does
Three rigging problems Armature takes off your plate
The problem
Rigging eats the weeks after the model is done
Load the mesh, fit it, assemble a skeleton from a template and press one button for skin weights. The AI half gets you from mesh to a rig you can start blocking on in minutes.
The problem
Auto-riggers run out where you need control
Speed-first tools leave little room to customise. Armature layers weight layers, masks, mirroring and a proper paint suite over the AI pass, and you can override any part without breaking the rest.
The problem
Character rigging lives inside expensive software
Armature needs no Maya, Blender or Python install, and it is free if you qualify for Maya Indie. Finished work leaves as USD for whichever package you animate in.
Inside the tool
Inside Armature: from mesh to rig in five stages
Load, fit, skeleton, skin, export. Every stage carries both an AI pass and the manual tools a rigger expects, so the automation never becomes a ceiling. Adrian built it after fourteen years in games, including leading the Character Tech Art and Weapons Tech Art teams at Sledgehammer Games on Modern Warfare III. The free Maya pipeline it slots into is already public at fabricator.studio; Armature rebuilds that work for people who do not have Maya.
FIT
The Fitting Room
Orients and sizes the character against a height reference, so symmetry and joint placement behave predictably in every stage after.
SKELETON
Templates and modules
Start from a biped, quadruped or prop template, or build from arm, leg, hand, spine, neck, chain, pivot and digit modules with live symmetry.
SKELETON
Finger count you set
Limb duplication, chain editing, and a finger count you specify explicitly instead of the machine guessing.
SKIN
Two local skinning engines
A solver that runs on any machine in seconds with no GPU, plus an optional AI solver on your GPU for the best weights.
PAINT
Weight layers and masks
Non-destructive layers and passes, masks, and mirroring across the centre line.
PAINT
Hammer and Chisel brushes
Hammer melts a patch into the surface around it, Chisel carves it rigid and sharpens its boundary. Armour plates want chisel, the cloth under them wants hammer.
VALIDATE
Pre-export validator
Safety checks run before export, so nothing broken ships to the animator.
EXPORT
Single-file USD
Mesh, skeleton, weights and Control Rig build data in one file, plus GLB and rig data as JSON. The same character can come back in for new weights years later.
MAYA
Maya Control Rig builder
The free FabricatorStudio Maya toolset reads your Armature export and builds the control rig, so it arrives as something you can animate.
UNREAL
Unreal Control Rig builder
In active development. The USD export already imports into Unreal.
Getting set up
Install Armature
- 1
Download the installer
Armature is distributed by FabricatorStudio. The installer link and the docs and walkthroughs come with your order.
- 2
Get past SmartScreen
Windows shows a "Windows protected your PC" warning on first run because Armature is a new publisher. Click More info, then Run anyway.
- 3
Add AI skinning if you want it
The built-in skinning engine works with no GPU and no extra download. The optional AI component is roughly 9 GB and needs an NVIDIA GPU with 6 GB of VRAM or more.
Will it run for you
Compatibility
- Platform
- Windows only, no macOS or Linux yet
- Needs
- No Maya, Blender or Python install
- Imports
- USD, OBJ, FBX, GLB, glTF
- Exports
- USD, GLB, JSON rig data
- AI skinning
- Optional, NVIDIA GPU with 6 GB VRAM
Questions
Common questions about Armature: Artist+AI Rigging
What is Armature: Artist+AI Rigging?
Armature is a standalone Windows application that turns a character mesh into a rigged, skinned, animation-ready asset using AI-assisted rigging and skinning. It's built by Adrian Melian (FabricatorStudio) and outputs directly to USD, GLB, and JSON so the result drops into Maya, Unreal, Blender, and any other pipeline that reads those formats.
Do I need Maya or Blender to run Armature?
No. Armature is a completely standalone application. It doesn't require Maya, Blender, Python, or any other DCC to be installed. It runs on its own and hands finished rigs off to whichever package you animate in.
What file formats does Armature support?
Input: USD, OBJ, FBX, GLB, glTF. Output: USD (single-file with mesh, skeleton, weights, and Control Rig build data), GLB, and JSON rig data. The USD export imports cleanly into Unreal and Maya, and a Maya Control Rig builder is included in the free FabricatorStudio toolset.
Is Armature free?
Yes for indies. Free for personal work, learning, portfolio pieces, and commercial work under $100k a year. Above $100k a year it's $149 per artist as a one-time purchase with a year of updates and a 14-day refund.
Does Armature use cloud AI or run locally?
Fully local. The AI skinning solve runs on your own machine. Nothing is uploaded and nothing is processed in the cloud. Your character data stays on your hard drive.
What are the system requirements?
Windows-only for now. The built-in skinning engine runs on any machine with no GPU required. The optional AI skinning component is roughly 9 GB and needs an NVIDIA GPU with at least 6 GB of VRAM.
Can I use Armature for commercial projects?
Yes. Free for commercial work under $100k a year (same threshold as Maya Indie). At or above $100k a year the licence is $149 per seat, one time, with 14-day refund and a year of updates.
How does Armature compare to Mixamo, AccuRig, and other auto-riggers?
The main difference is depth and control. Mixamo and similar tools focus on speed with limited customisation. Armature gives you the same speed on the initial pass, but layers a full professional rigging and skinning toolset on top so you can push to a production-grade result. It also runs entirely locally, exports USD as a first-class citizen, and integrates with the free FabricatorStudio Maya Control Rig builder.
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Supported
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