3D Art 1: Modeling Lesson 5.1.3 NEW

5.1.3 Rigging a Character for animation

Today's Agenda

Rigging your biped character

Materials:

Blender

if your Blender is glitching you must use the VDI

Bidped character from last time

CLASSROOM EXPECTATIONS

• Be kind and respectful
• Ask questions
• Don't spam the chat
• Have fun

01:00

what are we doing today?

Taking your biped character and put "bones" in it to allow biomechanimal movements.

• You can open your save file of biped or create a new biped

• biomechanical- movement of living things

warning!

• By my estimation, this is the trickiest thing you will do in the entire course. Take it slow, ask lots of questions, and just do your best!

rigging

• This process involves creating a "skeleton" for your model, and the term for this is known as rigging.
• The rigging involves multiple processes to make the character look even more realistic.
• While rigging the following processes makes the model look more realistic:
• creating armature
• renaming bones
• applying inverse kinematics
• symmetrizing, skinning, and posing

You could follow the way edio tells you to do this, but (for me) there are serious issues with this method. So, I'll show you the first steps just so you can see it, and then switch into a better way (I think).

the steps...

• Open your Blender character model from the "Creating a Biped Character Model" lesson.
• Select Object Mode at the top left of your screen.
• Select your character.
• Select Modifier Properties (blue wrench icon).
• Go to the second modifier you created the last time you worked on this file, the Skin modifier.
• Press on Create Armature and you will see yellow lines on your character.

You could follow the way edio tells you to do this, but (for me) there are serious issues with this method. So, I'll show you the first steps just so you can see it, and then switch into a better way (I think).

the steps...

• The yellow lines you see now are the bones of your character.
• Change to Edit Mode at the top left of your screen. The bones will now appear. If you select a gray dot, it turns orange. If you select the line segment of a bone, it turns yellow. This is how you know what you have actively selected.
• There might be a few bones that are not needed. You can get rid of them by selecting them, pressing X, and then pressing Dissolve Bones. If Dissolve Bones does not work well, you can also select Delete Bones to try pressing on a line segment if you have an extra bone

the new method

• Open your biped project from the last lesson, or create a new one.
• I usually will save this as a new project so, when I mess something up, I can go back to the original biped.
• In Object Mode, apply all the Modifiers.
• Then, click Object>Apply>All Transformations. This will keep your mesh from getting warped when we skin the armature. I'm not sure why!
• In Object mode, click Add>Armature>Single Bone.
• Reposition the bone into the center of the body.
• In Edit Mode (that part is important because it's in bold) extrude the rest of the skeleton, exactly like you did to create the biped originally (this is the only down side of this method).
• Extrude the bones on the right side of the screen, which is the left side of the body.

the steps...

This part is cool, it can stay.

• Next, you will need to automatically name all these vertices you created last time, which are located on the left side. They will have a .L at the end if you do the following:
• on your keyboard press A, then go up top to the Armature option bar, press Names, and press Auto-Name Left/Right
• This will automatically add a .L at the end of all the items on the left side of the character.

the steps...

• Go through and select each bone and rename it when its name appears within Bone Properties according to body parts by double-pressing and rewriting over the old numerical name. Keep the .L for all left-side body bones and leave off the .L for the middle bones of the spine and head. For instance, the left hand will be renamed from its number to Hand.L. (some of us already did this part)

the steps...

• You should only have vertices and bones only on the left side so far. You should not have any bones on the right side of the body. If there are any left still, press X to get rid of them after selecting them.
• Now is a good time to give the knee and elbow joints a little flex, so when we pose them later on, they will know which way to bend. Don't ask me why!

the steps...

Inverse Kinematics

• Now that all of your bones are named, the next thing you will need to do is to create inverse kinematics bone constraints to make movements more smooth. Inverse kinematics is the process of using equations to determine the motion of joints in a given position for an animation character's skeleton.
• Normal Kinematics refers to the idea that when your rig, or you, lift (for example) your upper arm, that your forearm and hand follow in a kinematic chain. Inverse Kinematics means that when you move your hand in a rig, that the forearm and upper arm follow suit.

the steps...

• At the top of your screen, switch your pivot point to Individual Origins to make the movement of your rigging smoother.
• While still in Edit Mode, select the hand bone and press shift + D to duplicate it. Place this duplicate wrist bone in the same place and position as the original.
• Press alt + P and press Clear Parent. Press S and move your mouse to scale this bone up.
• Scale it to a point where it is larger than the character's hand Within Bone Properties, rename this new bone Arm.IK.L. This is a "control bone" that you will use to pose your rig.
• Uncheck the Deform checkbox. (this is bold because I ALWAYS forget this, and then it deforms my mesh)

the steps...

• Click on the Elbow Joint, to extrude, and while keeping it on the Y-axis press E, Y. Move your mouse to drag it out a little bit on the Y-axis and click to release.
• Keeping the new bone selected, press alt + P and press Clear Parent. On your keyboard press S to scale this bone to be a little bigger than the original.
• Press G and Y to move the bone away from the elbow while staying on the Y-axis. You should move it behind the character in the direction you want the arm to bend. Rename this new bone Elbow.IK.L. This bone will control which way your arm bends.
• Uncheck the Deform option in the Bone Properties panel for the elbow and for any new duplicated/IK bones to ensure these bones do not deform the mesh when posing the character.

the steps...

Create Inverse Kinematics of the Ankle/Leg

• While still in Edit Mode, select the line segment of the foot, and press shift + D to duplicate it.
• Press alt + P and press Clear Parent. Press S and move your mouse to scale this bone up in size.
• Scale it to a point where it is larger than the character’s ankle. Within Bone Properties rename this new bone Leg.IK.L. (again, this is the control bone for the leg)
• Uncheck the Deform checkbox.

the steps...

Add New Leg Bones

• Click on the knee joint, to extrude while keeping it on the Y-axis press E, Y. Move your mouse to drag it out a little bit on the Y-axis and click to release.
• Keeping the new bone selected, press alt + P, and press Clear Parent. On your keyboard press S to scale this bone to be a little bigger than the original.
• Press G, Y to move the bone away from the knee in front of the leg while staying on the Y axis. Rename this new bone Knee.IK.L.
• Uncheck the Deform option in the Bone Properties panel for the elbow and for any new duplicated/IK bones to ensure these bones do not deform the mesh when posing the character.

the steps...

Create Bone Constraints For Arms

• Great job. Now select the original wrist bone. Up top where you usually change modes, switch to Pose Mode.
• Select the blue bone icon of Bone Constraint Properties in the sidebar. Press on Add Bone Constraint and choose Inverse Kinematics.
• Press on Target and choose Armature. Select Bone, type to search for IK, and find the arm.IK.L bone.
• Press on Pole Target and choose Armature, then the bone you choose will be the elbow.IK.L. Uncheck the Use Tail checkbox and change the Chain Length to 2.

the steps...

Create Bone Constraints For Legs

• Great job. Now select the original foot bone. Up top where you usually change modes, switch to Pose Mode.
• Select the blue bone icon of Bone Constraint Properties in the sidebar. Press on Add Bone Constraint and choose Inverse Kinematics.
• Press on Target and choose Armature. Select Bone, type to search for IK, and find the leg.IK.L bone.
• Press on Pole Target and choose Armature, then the bone you choose will be Knee.IK.L. Uncheck the Use Tail checkbox and change the Chain Length to 2.

the steps...

Copy Rotation

• Ensure all your original bones (wrist, elbow, ankle & knee) are not crooked. Under the blue Bone Constraint Properties icon adjust the Pole Angle number accordingly. So sometimes, you won't notice weird rotations until you skin the model. You can always go back and fix it afterwards.
• Next, select your original wrist/arm (just one or the other, not both), go to Bone Constraint Properties, then Add Bone Constraint, and press Copy Rotation.
• Under Target select Armature, and for Bone select Arm.IK.L.
• Next, select your original ankle/leg (just one or the other, not both), go to Bone Constraint Properties, then Add Bone Constraint, and press Copy Rotation.
• Under Target select Armature, and for Bone select the Leg.IK.L.

the steps...

A great description of IK

the steps...

Symmetrization

• Change to Edit Mode.
• Press shift as you select all of the bones (except the spine and head) on the left-hand side (you can also press A and then shift-press to deselect the spine and head).
• Right-click and select Symmetrize.
• This will copy the armature to the right-hand side of your character and also name all of these bones as the same but with .R at the end.

the steps...

Skinning

• Make sure you are in Object Mode.
• Select your mesh and then your armature together by holding shift.
• Press Ctrl + P and then choose the Armature Deform With Automatic Weights option.
• To return everything to the original position, press A to select all and Alt G and Alt R to reset. (Again, this step is not always necessary)

the steps...

Posing

• Now, you are able to move your character and pose it in different positions.
• Change the mode to Pose Mode. You will begin by moving the arm, which can be done by selecting your IK bones and pressing G to move, or R to rotate.
• You can switch views to adjust the way things move. Orbit around your character and notice how the different views affect how you are able to move the rigging.

the steps...

The Whole process

You Did It!

Congratulations! Share the results on the class Padlet.

MATERIALS NEEDED

Blender

next class

Creating a Quadruped