Blender Rigging Outline
1. Set User Preferences
1. Select File / User Preferences or change it from the Editor Type
1. Select Input
1. Set Emulate Numpad
2. Set Select With Default Button
3. Toggle Shift / Middle Mouse Button (If Needed)
2. Select Interface
1. Auto Depth
2. Zoom to Mouse Position
3. Rotate around Selection
3. Addons
1. 3D Navigation
2. Dynamic Spacebar menu
3. Screencast Keys (If needed)
1. Toggle on in Properties
2. Import mesh from existing blender file.
1. Select File / Append
2. Select Blend File
3. Select Object / Character
4. Make sure link is unchecked
5. Click on Link/Append from Library
6. Delete Armature from the Outliner
7. Delete Vertex Groups from Object Data (Triangle)
1. Select “EDIT MODE”
2. Select the top Group and press (-)
8. Delete UV Maps
3. Set Main view
1. Press 1 to place the character to front view
2. Press 5 to toggle orthographic mode
4. Show Object / Edit Mode
1. Use the tab key to toggle the states
5. Root Bone
1. Add the first bone to the model, Move bone to the waist
2. Set Right Side View
3. Show how you set the X-Ray Mode for the bones and how the bone is hidden by the mesh
4. Go into Object Browser and click on X-Ray
1. Make sure Deform is checked
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6. Extrude Bone to Chest and again towards the Neck
1. Press E to extrude Each Bone
1. Press Z to align bone
2. “These will be our spine bones”
3. Move bone back to align to the neck
2. Rename the Bones
1. You can use CTRL and Left(Right) click to rename from the outliner.
1. “Hips”
2. “Spine.01”
3. “Spine.02”
7. Now we can extrude the neck bone and the head bone
1. Extrude a small bone the bottom of the head
2. Extrude a final bone to the top of the head.
3. Align to Z Axis
1. Name the Bones
1. “Neck”
2. “Head”
4. “This is our primary chain for the model”
8. Pose Mode
1. By Selecting “CTRL TAB” or selecting it from the drop down menu you can switch to
“Pose Mode”
2. “Blender will remember the last setting you used and tab will toggle between the last two”
3. Demo the bone parenting
9. Create the shoulders
1. “Edit Mode”
2. Select “Spine.02” and duplicate with “Shift D”
1. Rotate bone to align with the top right clavicle
2. Name the bone
1. “Shoulder.L”
3. “This will be duplicated across when we finish”
10. Extrude the bone (3) three more times
1. Down to elbow
2. Down to Wrist
3. Down to Hand
1. “We are not going to rig the hand but this will give us our basic movement”
2. “You can name your bones anything you want you just need to make them consistant”
1. Name the bones
1. “Arm_Upper.L”
2. “Arm_Lower.L”
3. “Hand.L”
3. Rotate the mesh and make sure the bones are inside the arms and hands
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1. Press the middle mouse button to rotate and 1 and 3 to check the front and side
1. Press Shift 1 and Shift 3 for the opposite views
11. Creating the legs
1. Select the “Hips” bone and duplicate with “Shift D”
1. Rotate Bone in place
1. rotate 180 degrees by using R (Constrain Axis) and 180 (enter)
2. or Select Armature and Switch Direction “Alt F”
2. Move Bone to the Left side above the leg
3. Extrude the Bone down to the knee, foot and toe
1. Toggle View with “Z” key if needed”
2. Follow the form of the leg and make sure the bone is inside the leg
4. Name Bones
1. “Leg_Upper.L”
2. “Leg_Lower.L”
3. “Foot.L”
4. “Toe.L”
12. Mirror Bones across the X axis
1. Still in “Edit Mode”
2. Demonstrate how you could have used the X-Axis Mirror and that we would have to
manually setup all the names if we used it.
3. We need to set the rotation of our cursor to center
1. Press “Shift C” to recenter to origin
2. Press “.” to set rotation to 3D Cursor or select from the drop down menu
4. Select the bones on the left side to mirror. Use the box select tool “B” click and draw and
release button
5. “Shift D” to Duplicate, Right Mouse Click or “ESC” to cancel movement
6. Select Armature from the menu and then select “Mirror” and “X Local”
7. Reset the Rotation to Local by selecting it from the drop down menu
13. Next we need to rename the Bones to the Right Side.
1. With the new bones still selected
1. Press “W” and then “Flip Names”
2. or “Armature” from the menu and “Flip Names”
*** “We have completed out deform rig for our mesh, now we need to add our vertex groups to the
mesh. This will deform our mesh to the position of the rig. Any additional bones we add are going to be
extra control bones”
14. Assign Rig to Mesh
1. We are going to parent the rig to the mesh
2. switch to “OBJECT MODE”
3. Press “A” to clear selection
4. Select the Character Mesh
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5. Then shift click and select the Bones Rig
6. Press “CTRL P” then Armature Deform / Automatic Weights
7. Switch to “Pose Mode” and move the bones and see the effect on the Character Rig
15. Check the Mesh to verify the Vector Groups
1. Switch to “Edit Mode”
2. Select “Object Data” from the properties box.
1. Find the Vertex Group List
1. Select each group and click on “Select”
2. Press “Deselect” or “A” in the 3D View port to clear
3. look for any errors and remove/add the vertex as needed
16. Parent Arms to Torso
1. Select the shoulder Bone
2. Shift click the bone “Spline.02”
3. Press “CTRL P” then keep offset
4. Do the same for the other shoulder
17. Auto IK
1. Switch to “Pose Mode”
2. Select the Auto IK Button a show the “Weird” results.
3. If you move the bones you will see strange deformations
4. Uncheck the Auto IK Button as we will setup the IK Rig Manually
18. Manual IK Bones Setup
1. We are going to create the IK rig for the arms.
1. First we need to create a separate bone for our hand control.
2. We will want to turn on X-Axis Mirror
3. Select “Arm_Lower.L” Extrude a bone out at perpendicular to 90 degrees and use the
constraints to face the bone towards to back.
4. Next we need to unparent the bone.
5. This can be done two ways, the first is to select the bone and press “CTRL P” and select
unparent Bone.
6. The other is to delete the parent name from the relationships tab in “Bone” properties
1. Delete and press Enter to save changes.
7. Rename the Bones “Arm_IK.L” and Arm_IK.R” respectively
19. Now we need to setup the IK RIG
1. There are two methods to setting up the Rig, We will first go through the manual method
then show you how to use a short cut key to perform the same task.
1. Set to “Pose Mode”
2. The First Method
1. Select the bone control “Arm_IK.L”
1. Go to the Bone-Constraints tab and select Add Constraint
2. Click on Inverse Kinematics
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3. Select Target “Armature” and Set the Bone to “Arm_Lower.L”
3. The Second Method
1. select the bone “Arm_IK.L” Then shift select “Arm_Lower.L” then press “Shift I”
and select Active Bone.
20. Setting the chain value.
1. By default the IK will affect all of the bones on the mesh Character.
1. Set the limit of the IK up to shoulder. You will see the option in the add constraints
panel.
1. Set the IK Chain to 2
21. Repeat the same process for the knee and foot.
1. Change the angle respective to the bend.
22. Now when we move the Bone-Constraints you will notice that the arms and legs may not bend
in the correct direction. We will need to an an additional bone to be used as a rotation target.
1. Create a new bone at the elbows and extrude it back.
2. Unparent the bone
3. Move it back away from the model
4. Now Add the IK modifier and set the chain to 1
1. When you move the arm the elbow will now bend in the correct orientation
2. Name the New Bones
1. “Arm_Elbow_IK.L”
2. “Arm_Elbow_IK.R”
3. Parent the IK Bone to “Arm_Upper.L/R”
5. repeat the same process for the knees but the bone will be facing forward.
If you move the arm and foot IK bones around the limbs will bend in the correct direction .
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