Blender Tutorial: Basics of Character Rigging


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Hey guys. This is a quick tutorial on creating a simple, but rather effective character rig in blender. Hope it helps some of you out!
Read FAQ below:

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Download starting file: http://bit.ly/rigTutStart
Watch my animation tutorial using this rig: http://bit.ly/walkCycleTut

FAQ:
Q: Shift+Ctrl+C is not bringing up the add constraints menu.
A: This will only work if you’re in POSE mode.

Q: Leg/arm is not bending (or is bending in the wrong direction) when I move the ik bone.
A: In edit mode select the joint (where the upper and lower leg/arm meet) and move it slightly so that it has an initial bend in the direction you want.

Q: If I move the ik bone down to far the leg starts stretching at the foot.
A: Parent the foot to the lower leg bone instead of the ik bone. To make the foot still follow the rotation of the ik bone, select foot bone in pose mode and turn of inherit rotation in bone properties. Then select the ik bone, shift select the foot bone and press shift+ctrl+c and add a copy rotation constraint. In the constraints tab set both of the ‘Space’ fields to Local Space.

Q: Arm or leg moves unpredictably/wildly with even the slightest movement of ik bone.
A: IK is most probably still parented to the lower leg/arm bone. In edit mode, select the ik bone and press alt+p to clear the parenting.

Q: What is the period key?
A: The full stop you (should) put at the end of a sentence.

Q: How do you flip the bones after duplicating with shift+d?
A: Press ‘s’ to scale, ‘x’ to constrain to x axis, and ‘-1’ to flip. Left click to confirm.

Q: Whole rig moves wildly and unpredictable in pose mode.
A: The chain length on one of the ik bones is 0.

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Support my videos on Patreon: http://bit.ly/sebPatreon

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27 responses to “Blender Tutorial: Basics of Character Rigging”

  1. Hiii i need help every thing going good but the main part of combine the mash with armature is not happening i try it many time but its give a error [bone heat weighting: failed to find solution for one or more bones] i dont understand why its give me that error plz reply me as soon as u receive

  2. I managed to do everything up until the point where I join the mesh and the bones. When I join them, the mesh suddenly warps. The right leg warps backwards sharply and then back around to combine with the left leg. It basically becomes a second left leg behind the original (the same can be said when I try to pose it: it moves as if it's the left leg, not the right). Posing the bones for the right leg does not affect the mesh for the right leg at all. Please help!
    EDIT: Realized this was because I built my model with a mirror modifier and didn't apply the modifier like I should have when I was done making the model. Basically the bones were trying to control the whole mesh while just being able to use only half of the skeleton.

  3. I need help I can't move the arm when I move the IK bone and I followed everything that the tutorial showed and I even tried moving the joint where the upper and lower arm bones meet and that still does not work

  4. Well, I did it, with my own created mesh body, cause the link is no longer active, and it worked surprisingly well. Most important stuff to remember: WATCH IN WHAT MODE YOU ARE IN – EDIT or POSE because it matters.

  5. Hi. When I attempt to make the parent the armature for some reason everything gets blown out of proportion. The mesh grows about 20 sizes out around the armature. Any idea why this would happen?

  6. Great tutorial, quick quesiton. When setting "preserve orientation" on the foot and leg IK bones, the foot is no longer connected to the lower leg, but rather the parent becomes the leg IK. Everything seems fine like this thought, is it an issue?

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