Stumbled across Auto-Rig Pro last night so perfect timing. For rigging I know Mixamo has become a popular automated option but if there are any issues or tweaking needed you are out of luck. Maya has a basic autorig setup for bipeds but it is very simple. For mostly automated, quality rigs is Auto-Rig Pro one of the best options around?
CHARACTER RIGGING PLUG-IN FOR MAYACHARACTER RIGGING MADE SIMPLEThe Perseus Biped Rigging enables Maya users to easily and quickly rig a wide variety of CG characters. With just a few clicks, Perseus Auto Rig installs a high-quality skeleton and proxy, adds a control rig,compatible with Unreal Engine and Unity,Automation for Walk Cycle and Run Cycle on the path, a task that normally takes days.The rig Perseus installs is designed for maximum flexibility and control, allowing you to contort and deform the rig in ways that are impossible with most rigs used outside of major feature animation studios. Powerful integrated tools like smart FK/IK switching and make animating with a PERSEUS rig easy and fun.Perseus Facial auto rig builds its rig with standard Maya nodes, the resulting rigged character can be used in any copy of Maya. The Perseus Auto Rig is perfect for anyone who needs a great character rig fast.
PERSEUS RIGGING 2.0.
Retargetting.First select the source armature (BVH) and assign it in the dedicated field.Then the target armature (Auto-Rig Pro) and assign it below.Push Auto-Scale to adjust the source armature scale to the target, ensure the result is correct, otherwise scale it yourself.Press Build Bones List.Check and modify if necessary the bones mapping by changing the bones names in the list.Define the root bone by clicking Set as Root after clicking the root bone in the list.Optionally use the IK mode for the feet and the hands. Click the IK checkbox and assign the IK Pole bone. Only works if the selected bone in the list is an IK bone (check the rig is actually switched to IK too).Check the source armature rest pose. If it’s the same as the target armature rest pose, go to the next step.From the picture above we can see the source armature, on the left, has a different rest pose than the target armature, on the right. So we’ll need to redefine the rest pose of the source armature.Click the Redefine Rest Pose buttonSelect the bones that are not oriented like the target armatures bones (in this case the arms and legs) and click Copy Selected Target Bones, wich will copy the corresponding bone direction automatically from the target armature (may not work properly if the poses are too much different, in this case do this manually).
Then click Apply to complete. Note it can take some time to complete if the animation is long (about 1‘30” for 1800 frames).Click Re-Target to apply.Finally, adjust the rotation and positions if necessary by clicking the interactive offsets for each bones in the list.Optionally export/import the mapping preset, and use the name space search and replace when using a preset for a different character name but same bones name (e.g: mixamorig:Hips matthew:Hips).