Acoustic Guitar Rig by Noah Li
Acoustic Guitar Rig for Maya by Noah Li (Keyojimbo) is a free prop rig with vibrating strings, featured on 80 Level. The strings run on a 3-frame loop on an animation layer, and keying that layer's weight sets how hard they vibrate. It has body and neck controls and needs no plugins. Made for music animation, prop performance and characters playing an instrument.
Part of our free Maya rigs collection. Browse all 70 free rigs
- Prop, acoustic guitar
- Rig type
- 156
- Downloads
- 16 Jun 2026
- Last updated
- 16 Jun 2026
- Released
- Works with
- Maya, no plugins needed
- Licence
- Free
- File size
- 46.2 MB
- Strings
- Vibrate via an animation layer
Maya
Instant download Vetted creator
Acoustic Guitar Rig is out
Everything the rig ships with. What you get on day one:
One weight, any strum
A quiet hold, a hard strum or anything in between, all driven by a single animation layer weight.
No simulation
Noah skipped string simulation and complicated procedural setups in favour of a keyed animation layer.
Motion blur tip
Notes from Noah on adding a few bones to fake motion blur during the heavier vibrations.
Featured on 80 Level
One of the projects from Noah that 80 Level picked up.
Noah Li's acoustic guitar rig, strings vibrating
A guitar rig with vibrating strings, done the clever way
Noah Li, also known as Keyojimbo, keeps quietly producing the kind of work that ends up on 80 Level, and this acoustic guitar rig for Maya is one of those projects. The string vibration is the thoughtful part: instead of over-engineering it, he solved it with an animation layer, a technique you can take into your own prop rigs.
The rig sits between a technical exercise and a production-style prop. Animate a character playing a song, build a short film where music is part of the story, or use it for prop animation studies.
What you get with the acoustic guitar rig
Acoustic guitar rig
A Maya rig of an acoustic guitar with full body and neck controls.
Vibrating string setup
Driven by a 3-frame loop on an animation layer.
Adjustable vibration
Key the animation layer's weight to set how much the strings vibrate.
Notes from Noah
How to add extra bones for motion blur style enhancements.
Maya-native
No special plugin requirements.
What the acoustic guitar rig is great for
- Music and instrument animation, character performance with props
- Studying prop animation, weight, and physical character interaction
- Stylised short films where music is part of the storytelling
- Reel pieces involving prop choreography
- Learning animation-layer driven vibration and motion blur fakes
- A portfolio piece built around character-meets-instrument storytelling
The details
- Software
- Autodesk Maya, no plugins
- Rig type
- Prop, acoustic guitar
- Controls
- Body and neck
- Strings
- 3-frame loop on an animation layer
Maya, no plugins
- Autodesk Maya
- No special plugins required
Who made it
- Rig: Noah Li (Keyojimbo)
Made something with the guitar rig? Tag Noah on Twitter (@Keyojimbo) or share it back here on Animworks.
Free
Free to download and use in your own animation work.
What animators say
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Questions and bug reports go straight to Noah Li, or email support@anim.works.
It lands in your downloads the moment you check out, and stays there.
Share your feedback on the rig
Animating with Acoustic Guitar Rig? Post your shots in the Discord, ask Noah Li a question, or tell us what you would want in the next version.




