Building A Basic Low Poly Character Rig In Blender - Tuts+ 3D & Motion Graphics Tutorial

8/9/2019 Building A Basic Low Poly Character Rig In Blender - Tuts+ 3D & Motion Graphics Tutorial

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CHARACTE R RIG

by Karan Shah 7 Aug 2012 17 Comments

17 5 91

ing A Basic Low Poly Character Rig In Blender - Tuts+ 3D & Moti... http://cgi.tutsplus.com/tutorials/building-a-basic-low-poly-charac

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In this tutorial you will learn how to build a basic rigging system for a low poly

character using Blender. Though blender has a Auto-Rigging system called Rigify

for bipeds, one must first know how to set up an armature from scratch with Inverse

Kinematics controls. You will also learn how to skin the armature to a model and

paint weights.

For the purpose of this tutorial I have used a base model which can be purchased

on 3docean.

Step 1

Open a new file and import the base model (File > Import.)You can use any other

biped model as well. Right click and select the model, press Alt+G to clear its

location, so that it is placed at the center. With the model selected, press Shift+S

and then select "Cursor to Selected" to bring the 3D cursor to the origin of the

model. Whenever we add a new object, it appears wherever the cursor is. Don't

worry if your model's center point is at the bottom near the feet unlike in this tutorial.


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Step 2

Press Shift+A and add an Armature Object. Press Z and you can view the object

inside.


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Step 3

To make the armature visible in shaded view mode, click on the Armatures Tab, in

the Display Panel turn on X ray. This will enable us to see armatures through the


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model. You can also rename your new armature object.

Step 4

Press 3 on the Numpad to get into the sideview. With the Armature object selected,

press TAB to enter into Edit mode. Just as an object's geometry is edited with the

TAB key, armature object's bones can also be edited with the TAB key (edit mode.)

In edit mode, select the bone by Right clicking and move it a ways back as shown

below.


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Rotate it 90degrees so that the tip of the bone is inside the body. Place the bone

just around the waist line. Remember that we are in edit mode to do all the editing.

Step 5

Now before going further we must understand the direction of rotation for the bones

in human body. All the bones from the lower back to head have the rotation center


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(pivot point) at their base (bottom.) Also the top bone is the child of the lower bone

e.g. the head is the child of neck, which is further a child of the chest and so on.

This means if we rotate or move the lower bone, its child will also be affected.

However if we move or rotate a child bone, the parent bone is not affected. The

direction of flow is downwards from the pelvis to the feet. So the bone we just

created is the parent most bone from which bones for both direction will be

extruded. The image below is just for understanding, you don't have to recreate

this.

Step 6

Now we'll get back to our armature. In Edit mode, select the tip of the bone with

Right-click. Press E to extrude

a bone.


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Step 7

Extrude again a few times for chest, neck and finally for the head.


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We have the bones on a little bit of angle in the side view, but in the front view we

can see that they are in a straight line.


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Step 8

Select the tip of the first bone again and extrude a bone downwards.


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Step 9

Now we must rename all the bones. Select a bone (in the edit mode) and click on

the Bone properties and then rename it. Do it for all bones - pelvis, stomach, chest,neck and head. For the first bone I have named it Base.


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Optional:To see the names in the 3D view, open the armature properties and

under the display panel cl ick on Names.


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Step 10

In the front view click on the origin of leg to place the 3D cursor. Now press Shift A

and automatically a new bone is added. We are still in the edit mode. Save your file.


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Step 11

Select the tip of the new bone and press G to grab it down to the knee.


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Step 12

Press E again to extrude another bone to the ankle. Make sure the two leg bones

are not in a straight l ine, rather they should be little bit angled or bent.


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Step 13

Extrude a bone for the foot and another for the toe.


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Step 14

Now right click on the thigh bone to select it. In the Bone properties toolbar, rename

the bone to thigh.l with a .L extension. This way blender will recognize the bone as

left or right, making it easy for posing and editing in mirror symmetry later.

Similarly name the rest of the bones with anything you like but with a .L extension -


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lowerleg.l, foot.l and finally toe.l.

Step 15

Select the thigh.l bone and in the Bone properties toolbar, under the Relations

panel, set Parent to the pelvis bone. Now the thigh bone is a child of the pelvis

bone. Make sure the Connected check box is unchecked, as we don't want these

bones to be connected together, just follow the parent-child relationship.

Alternatively you can parent it with the Ctrl+P command. Select the thigh bone first

and then the pelvis and press Ctrl+P to make it a parent. Select keep offset when

asked.


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Step 16

Press 1 on the numpad to get into the Front view. Left-click on the left side of the

chest, just below the neck, on a point where you want to start the collar bone.

Press Shift+A to create a bone.


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Select the tip of the new bone and press G to move it right on the shoulder.

Step 17

Now extrude out a bone to the elbow, and then again until the palm.


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Step 18

In the Bone properties, rename all the new bones with anything you want, but with

a .L extension. I have named them - collar.l, upperarm.l and lowerarm.l

Step 19

Select the collar.L bone and in the Bone properties set the Chest bone as its

parent. This way it will follow the chest bone.


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Step 20

Now extrude out the palm from the lower arm bone.

Step 21

Press E again to extrude out the finger bones three times.


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Step 22

Now select all the Finger bones while holding Shift and then right clicking them

individually, or by using the B key and drag selecting all of them. Press Shift+D to

duplicate the set and move the mouse to place them on another finger. Adjust the

tips to match the finger joints. Duplicate the set again for the rest of the fingers.


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Step 23

Rename all the new bones with a .L extension. (Palm.l, f1.l etc...)

Step 24

Similarly duplicate a finger bone set for the thumb. Place and adjust the bones to

match the thumb joints. Press Z to see the joint loops. Rename them again with a

.L extension (ta.l, tb.l, tc.l)


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Step 25

Now we have finished setting up all the basic deforming bones for left side. We will

duplicate and mirror these for the right side. Press TAB to exit edit mode. With the

Armature object selected, press Shift+S and select 'Cursor to Selected'. This will

bring the 3D cursor to the origin point of the object that is the center of the

armature.


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Step 26

With the Armature object selected, press TAB again to enter into Edit mode. Select

all the left bones (press B to drag select or hold Shift and then Right click formultiple select.) Make sure you don't select any center bones or leave out any of

the .L bones.


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Step 28

In the Header of 3D view (at the bottom), change the Pivot point to 3D cursor. This

will make the 3D cursor the center of deformations like Rotation and Scaling, etc...You can also do this with the keyboard by pressing the . (period) key.


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Step 29

Click on the Armature Menu, go to Mirror and then finally click on X Local. The

duplicated bones will be mirrored with the 3D cursor being the center point of

rotation.


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We now have all the deforming bones setup complete.


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Press CTRL+TAB to enter into Pose mode (or select Pose mode from the header

bar.) Right-click on any bone and press R to rotate any bone and see some action.

You will see that by rotating a parent bone, all the child bones get affected.

Similarly rotating or moving the first bone (base) we created, will effect the complete

structure. Select all the bones with the A key in the Pose mode, and press Alt+G to

reset the bone's position to default. Press Alt+R to reset the bone's rotation to

default.

Step 31

Next we will add an IK setup for the legs. This will help with posing and animation.

With the Armature selected (or in Pose mode,) press TAB to get into Edit mode. In

the 3D view, press T to toggle on the Tool shelf, and turn on the X-Axis Mirror under

the Armature Options. This will mirror any editing done on either side.


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Step 32

In the side view, select the tip of the leg bone and press E, and Extrude out a single

bone.


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Step 33

Name the new bones. I have named them ik-leg.l and ik-leg.r. In the Bone

Properties window, under the Relations Panel. Delete the name of the parent bone,

as we don't want it to be a child on any. Uncheck the Connected checkbox. This

way we can easily move the ik bone around.


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Step 34

Now we have to create a pole target of the IK bones. You will understand the need

for this later. For this you can create two new bones and place them in front of the

knee, OR you can duplicate any existing bone and make it child of the new ik-leg

bone, so that it will follow this bone.

For now, let us duplicate the foot bone. Select the foot bone by Right-clicking and

then press Shift+D to make a Duplicate. As the X-axis Mirror is on, the other side

will automatically be created and edited. Move the bone in front of the knee. You

might need to switch back to 'median point' as the pivot point for rotation by

pressing , (comma). Name them knee.l and knee.r , make them a child of the ik-leg

bones respectively. i.e. knee.l a child of ik-leg.l, and knee.r a child of ik-leg.r


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Step 35

Press Ctrl+TAB to enter into Pose Mode. Right-click on the lower-leg.l bone toselect it.


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Step 36

In the Bone Constraint Properties, add a new constraint - Inverse Kinematics, to the

lower leg bone.

Step 37


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A value of 90degrees was perfect for me this time.


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Step 39

Now select the lower-leg.r (right) bone and add the Inverse Kinematics Constraint to

it. Use Ik-leg.r as the target bone (of the Armature object) and knee.r as the Pole

target. Set the chain length to 2and Pole angle to around 90degrees.

Press Ctrl+TAB to get into Pose mode and play with the new IK bone. Select the ik

controller and press G to move it around. Select the base bone and move it around.

To reset the position and rotation, select all bones with by pressing the A key, and

press Alt+G (to reset the location) and Alt+R (to reset the rotation.)


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Step 40

Enter into Edit mode by hitting TAB and place the 3D cursor on the center. Press 3

on the numpad to get into the side view. Click at the bottom of the feet to position

the 3D cursor there. As it was in the center of the object, it will remain in the center

when viewed from the front. if not, place it in center between both feet.


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Right-click on the tip of the bone to select it, and press 3 on the numpad to get into

the side view. Press G and move the tip forward, holding Ctrl while moving.

Step 41

Now we will make this root bone a parent of the Base bone and the IK bones.

Select the Base bone and in it's properties, type the name here ('Root') in the

parent field.


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Similarly do the same for the ik controllers.


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Step 42

We now have a basic setup. Play with some poses (in Pose mode). To move the

legs, use the IK controllers. To adjust the direction of the knees, move the knee

bones (Pole targets.)

Press Alt+G to reset the location of the bones, and Alt+R to reset the rotations. The

Armature is ready and we can start skinning the model to it.


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Step 44


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Press TAB to exit Edit mode. If you are in Pose mode, then press Ctrl+TAB to switch

to Object mode (or select the mode in the header.)

Step 45

Now Right-click on the model to select it first, and then hold the Shift key andRight-click on the armature object. Press Ctrl+P to make it (Armature - the object

which is selected last) a parent. Choose the 'With Automatic Weights' option. This

way Blender will automatically assign vertices of the model to the respective bones

according to the bone weight and placement.


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Right-click only on the Armature to selected it, press Ctrl+Tab to enter into Pose

mode. Play around by Rotating the bones, you'll see that the mesh now deforms

along the bones.

In the Modifiers Panel, you'll see that an Armature modifier is automatically added


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While in Pose mode, we see that the mesh isn't deforming in same places to way

we want. For this we can alter the effect of the bones on the vertices, using a

method called Weight Painting.

Step 46In the Armature Properties click on the Stick button, under the Display Panel. This

will display the bones as Sticks.


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Select the mesh by Right-clicking, and in the Object Properties (under the Display

Panel) turn on Wire. This will be helpful while weight painting.


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Step 47

With the Armature in POSE MODE and a bone is selected. Right-click on the mesh

object to select it. Press Ctrl+TAB to get into Weight Painting mode, or you canselect the mode in the header section of the 3D view (at the bottom of 3D view)


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Step 48

Press T to toggle on the Tool Shelf. While in Weight Paint Mode, you'll see all the

tools related to this mode.

1. The Weight slider determines the effect of the bone on the particular

vertices.

Zero means that the selected bone will have no effect on the vertex andis shown with a Blue color on the mesh.

While painting with a 0.5 weight means that the bone will effect 50% of

the vertices painted, and will be shown in green on the mesh.

While painting with a 1.0 weight means that the bone will effect 100% of

the vertices painted, and will be shown in a red color on the mesh

2. I like to set the strength of the Brush to Full.

3. Turn on X-Mirror so that the painting effect is mirrored for the mirrored


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Experiment with Weight Painting. Rotate the bones to see the effect.

Step 50

For the joints, the middle loop can be shared with both bones to create a round

shape. You can use this on most joints wherever you need roundness.


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Do check the BACK SIDE too where ever you do the painting.

Step 51

You can also edit the geometry by pressing TAB to get into Edit mode. Here I have

pulled out some vertices to get a more pointy elbow.


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Do check the BACK SIDE too where ever you do the painting.

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Step 52

Similarly check for all bones. Paint with a 0.0(or close to zero) weight brush if you

don't want the vertices to get effected, and paint with higher values if you want the

vertices to deform. You can also share one vertex with two bones with different

weight to have a nice deformation. A good deforming rig depends upon how good

the weight painting is.


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Step 53

We now have our character ready for posing or animation.


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There are different approaches for creating the pelvis setup. Feel free to explore,

experiment and learn.

Related Tutorials:

Creating A Low Poly Ninja Game Character Using Blender

Modeling, UVmapping And Texturing A Low Poly T-Rex In Blender

Rigging A Voodoo Doll Character In Maya Using Setup Machine & Face

Machine

Building A Complete Human Facial Rig In Maya - Tuts+ Premium

Building A Complete Human Character Rig In Maya Tuts+ Premium


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Difficulty:

IntermediateLength:

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Categories:

Character Rig Blender 3D Low-Poly

Character Design Rigging Human Model

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About Karan Shah

Karan Shah is a 3D Artist and Animator

from India. He is a BFA Graduate withspecialization in sculpture (traditional). An

inclination towards the digital medium made him a

self taught computer artist. He is a currently

freelancing..

Video Fundamentals $15

Create a Low Poly Camaro in

Blender: Part 1

3D & Motion Graphics

Modeling & Rigging a Cartoon Parrot

In Maya: Part 1


Create a Facial Animation Setup in

Blender - Part 2


Back-End Developer

at Coalition Technologies in Culver City,


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17 Comments

steven

Well my problem is the same, i cant get the position right it rotates all over the place

and i don't understand

why? I set the knee bone a little forward but is the same chicken rotation..:-(

Igor Vasilyev

move knee behind

BEHNAM

Karan Shah , I LOVE Your tutorials , Best tutorials .Thank U alooooooot.

Haiden Alz Haimmer

Regards from Argentina, i followed this tutorial and i've perfect results. the bestexplained tutorial i found! thank you =)

ollygoodsir

Best rigging tutorial on the web for blender thanks

Alex McIl

Nice Article, must have taken a while to write this one up.

I have made rigs without that "Tail Bone"....adding it makes things a lot easier

Beatdown

where other video tutorials left me scratching my head, this one succeeded. thanks

Gabe

Thanks this is really helpful


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Building A Basic Low Poly Character Rig In Blender - Tuts+ 3D & Motion Graphics Tutorial

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Transcript of Building A Basic Low Poly Character Rig In Blender - Tuts+ 3D & Motion Graphics Tutorial