Auto-rigging in 60 seconds: from static mesh to animated character

Rigging is the part of the 3D pipeline that nobody talks about because it's tedious. You have a beautiful character mesh. You have a perfect texture. Now you need to plant a skeleton inside it, weight every vertex to the right bone, and tune the deformations so the elbow doesn't crinkle.

Or, in 2026, you click a button.

How auto-rig works

Polyx's auto-rig analyses the silhouette and topology of your mesh, predicts a humanoid (or quadruped) skeleton, and weights each vertex automatically. The output is a standard glb with a Mixamo-compatible skeleton — meaning every animation library on the planet retargets onto it. (For why GLB matters here, see our format comparison.)

The pipeline:

1. Upload your mesh (or generate one in Polyx and skip the upload).
2. Select rig type: humanoid or quadruped.
3. Pick optional pose constraint — see our T-pose vs A-pose guide to pick well.
4. Click rig.

Forty to ninety seconds later you have a fully-rigged, fully-weighted character.

Animation library

Once rigged, you can apply any of our 200+ baked animations: idle, walk, run, jump, dance, combat. Animations are retargetable — same animation works on a stocky goblin and a tall elf without manual cleanup.

Where it shines

• Indie games needing 30 NPCs by Friday — see how a 3-person team did exactly that in our 30-day sprint case study.
• Previz for film — block out shots in hours, not weeks.
• VR/AR avatars where users want their generated character to actually move.

Where to be careful

Auto-rig works best on bipedal humanoids and stable quadrupeds. Highly stylised characters (giant heads, six arms, no legs) sometimes need manual cleanup. We expose all bone positions in the rigged GLB so you can refine in Blender if needed.

Pro tip

If you generate a character in Polyx with pose_mode: a-pose, auto-rig produces noticeably cleaner deformations than from a generic stand-pose. The bones snap into anatomical positions more reliably.

Continue reading

• T-pose, A-pose, or freeform — picking the input pose for the cleanest rig.
• GLB vs FBX vs USDZ — which format keeps your rig intact.
• 30-day vertical slice case study — auto-rig in production.

Open the workspace → and toggle “Auto-rig”. First rig is on the house.