Notes

Eduard Zell
MSc. Computer Animation and Visual Effects

Rigging Cartoon Characters with stretch and squash features and bendy extremities

References

The Software used to evaluate different rigging techniques
Autodesk, Maya, Autodesk.

The main sources of inspiration for rigging more advanced characters. This two websites contain examples of carton rigs with squash and stretch functionality
Dawood Ashrafi 2009, Ashrafi Rig 1.0.5. cartoony rig with a lot of ability. Available from: http://www.creativecrash.com/maya/downloads/character-rigs/c/ashrafi-rig [11 May 2010].
 2009, Animatik Rig 0.0.8 Bendy / IK/FK Snapping / Stretchy IK/FK etc. Available from: http://www.creativecrash.com/maya/downloads/character-rigs/c/animatik-rig [10. May 2010]

A tutorial to implement a bendy arm rig. The provided script has been used to subdivide joints equally.
Duncan Skertchly, Stretchy, Bendy Arm Rig. Available from: http://www.duncandonuts.co.uk/bendyarm.html [13 May 2010].

Several sets of different Rigs. From mechanic to creatures, from cartoon to super realistic.
Kiel Figgins 2010, Free Rigging Sets. Available from: http://www.3dfiggins.com/gallery.php?id=38&item=68#68 [11 May 2010].

An auto-rigging tool for Maya. Creates automatically bipedal rigs with squash and stretch.
Jason Baskin 2007, Rig-o-matic 5.4.0 (maya script). auto-rigging MEL script for bipedal characters. Available from: http://www.creativecrash.com/maya/downloads/scripts-plugins/character/c/rig-o-matic [13 May 2010].

This is an excellent book to get a good understanding of rigging and being able to implement the suggested techniques after a short time. It is focused on Maya and provides an excellent technical view of Maya and shows how the same result can be achieved in Maya using Utility nodes, MEL-scripts or Expressions. 

Kiaran Ritchie, Jake Callery & Karim Biri 2006, The art of rigging. Volume I ; a definitive guide to character technical direction with Alias Maya, Toolkit.

A nice overview of the 12 traditional animation principles with basic examples for 3D
G. Scott Owen 1999, Principles of Traditional Animation Applied to 3D Computer Animation. Available from: http://www.siggraph.org/education/materials/HyperGraph/animation/character_animation/principles/prin_trad_anim.htm [11 May 2010].