RIGGING L2-1 : Rigging FUNDAMENTALS

0:00welcome and congratulations on making it

0:02to rigging isn't scary level two by the

0:05end of this section you will be well on

0:08your way to Conquering the rigging

0:10Valley of the suck in this section we'll

0:13make an even better rig than in level

0:15one it will feature automated corrective

0:18bones in the wrist and shoulder a better

0:21hips control and a foot setup these are

0:25essential rig mechanisms that you

0:27definitely need in your toolkit as a fin

0:30challenge you will also build a simple

0:33face rig With a Little Help from me all

0:36of this will be surprisingly easy

0:38because instead of just adding lots and

0:40lots of complexity which may just

0:42confuse you we'll focus on deepening

0:45your fundamental rigging knowledge

0:47mastering the fundamentals is key this

0:50is something I noticed after I began

0:53making rigging tutorials teaching forced

0:55me to learn the fundamentals really well

0:58but the weird part is that also made me

1:01better at understanding Advanced

1:04Techniques that's why I focus on

1:06teaching foundational skills especially

1:09at the novice level and therefore in

1:12this video and the next one we'll set up

1:14a similar rig to level one but along the

1:17way we'll stop and focus on little

1:19important details that many people Miss

1:22we'll talk about precise bone alignment

1:25bone placement based on anatomy and Bone

1:29roll the these are vital things that you

1:31need to know there will be nothing

1:33difficult just watch the videos and try

1:35to absorb the information and based on

1:38that we'll build the cool mechanisms

1:41that I mentioned

1:42earlier get the start file from the

1:44downloads and we'll get right into

1:49it since we are focusing on good

1:51practices and fundamentals I'm going to

1:54check my model this is a habit of mine

1:56and it has to become a habit for you as

1:58well so the model is standing on top of

2:01the grid if I switch to front view I can

2:03see the face of the character that is

2:05exactly what I want the character is

2:08exactly in the

2:10middle and she's normal human

2:15size if you need to tweak something for

2:17a character do it before you start

2:19rigging and then if location rotation

2:22and scale are not applied select all

2:25objects contr a all transforms then if

2:28the 3D cursor is not in the middle press

2:31shift s cursor to world origin then

2:34shift a and create your initial Armature

2:36bone do not move the Armature in object

2:39mode while creating the rig this way its

2:42origin will stay exactly in the center

2:45of the

2:46scene then under Armature viewport

2:49display enable in front now we can start

2:51rigging but before we do please allow me

2:54to make one small change to my settings

2:57I'll go to edit preferences King map and

3:00enable tab for p

3:03menu when I have it enabled I can just

3:06press tab in the viewport and go to edit

3:08mode pause mode or object mode really

3:10quickly and for misses of course when I

3:13press tab I'll get edit mode object mode

3:15weight paint mode sculpt mode and so on

3:18this makes going between the different

3:20modes much more convenient you don't

3:22have to do it just keep in mind that

3:24that is how I'll be switching modes I

3:26will always let you know that I'm

3:27switching the mode and you can also look

3:29in the upper left corner and you'll see

3:31which mode I'm

3:33in I'll go to edit mode and I'll start

3:37building the spine in level one I told

3:39you to go to side view and adjust this

3:42initial bone this way that is because we

3:45created the Armature in the center of

3:47the world so the default bone is in the

3:50center and if I only move it in the side

3:52view it will stay that way this makes

3:54adjusting this bone for the spine very

3:57easy but that is not the only way to do

3:59it in perspective you can press G then

4:01Zed to only move the bone up and down

4:05you can also use the move

4:09Gizmo to extrude a new bone from here I

4:12can select the tail of the bone press e

4:14then Zed so that the Extrusion is

4:17straight up and once more my favorite

4:20way is still to go to side view but keep

4:23in mind that there different ways to be

4:24precise and you should be using all of

4:27them now let's say that you offset these

4:29bones a little bit on the x- axis by

4:31accident an easy way to fix it is to

4:33select all bones press shift s cursor to

4:36World Origins so that the 3D cursor is

4:39exactly in the

4:41middle set your pivot point to 3D

4:45cursor orientation to Global press s

4:49then X then zero on the numpad these are

4:53just a handful of precision techniques

4:55Precision is quite important in rigging

4:58so you'll learn more four of these later

5:00in the course now that you can be

5:02precise let's see how these bones need

5:05to be positioned exactly inside the body

5:07of the character I took images of a

5:09character and overlaid a skeleton over

5:12them this helps me determine the most

5:15important points on the spine these are

5:17the bottom of the pelvis the start of

5:19the actual spine the start of the rib

5:21cage and the end of the rib cage which

5:24gives me a basic spine like this from

5:28the side view if I just follow my

5:30anatomical reference I'll get a curve

5:33that looks something like this an

5:35important point is that Anatomy should

5:36be just a starting point but we don't

5:39have to follow it blindly if you align

5:41the spine bones like this from the side

5:43view the deformations you get will

5:45likely not be ideal blender bones do not

5:48just simulate real bones they need to

5:50simulate the bones as well as

5:53musculature and other tissue on the body

5:56so as a rule of thumb try to keep your

5:58blender Bones close to the the center of

6:00the volume of the body so from the side

6:03view instead of this we'll get something

6:05that looks more like this let's

6:07implement

6:10it now I want to align the Bones from

6:13the front view and let me switch my

6:16Pivot Point back to bounding box center

6:18so that I can use my Gizmo understanding

6:21the pivot Points and the orientations is

6:23another key to being very precise and

6:26you will learn all about them during the

6:28course I'll select this connection of

6:30Bones and move it down a little bit to

6:33establish my pelvis and then I'll move

6:35this one down as well to establish the

6:38middle of the

6:39spine and this will be my chest bone

6:42from the side view as I said I want to

6:44keep these bones close to the middle of

6:46the

6:50body the chest has some flexibility so

6:53you can also split it into two bones but

6:56we'll keep it to one in this example

7:00now I want to create bones for the neck

7:02and head and let's look at our reference

7:04again the pivot of rotation of the neck

7:07should be around here which we already

7:09established and the pivot of rotation of

7:11the head will be around here which is

7:14just below the

7:15ear so I'm going to extrude another bone

7:19and place it just below the ear and then

7:21I'll extrude another bone straight up to

7:25the top of the

7:26head next we want to create the clavicle

7:29or the shoulder

7:30bone in my reference I'm going to Mark

7:33the clavical bone with dots and connect

7:36them so this should be a clavical bone

7:38right not quite again let's follow the

7:41rule that a bone needs to be in the

7:44center of the mass that it's going to

7:46control and what the shoulder bone

7:47controls is really the clavicle the

7:51traps muscles and even the scapula at

7:54the

7:55back so in blender I'm going to create a

7:57new bone go to front view

8:00rotate it about 90° scale it

8:04down align it roughly with the clavicle

8:07from the front

8:08view and from this side view I'm going

8:11to push it in the middle of the body so

8:14that it can control the clavicle the

8:16traps and the

8:18scapula next we have the arm and this is

8:21another important point the base of the

8:24arm is this ball socket joint below the

8:27clavicle there is a tendency to place

8:29this joint not deep enough so somewhere

8:32around here if we follow the reference

8:35it should be here and the elbow and

8:38wrist are much easier to align just

8:40based on our model so we'll not focus on

8:42them too

8:45much so let's grab the spine go to Front

8:48View Press shift d and rotate

8:51it and again this created this tilt of

8:54the bone this is the bone roll which we

8:56can control with controlr I'm going to

8:59talk more about about it in a second but

9:00now let's place this part of the bone

9:03deep into the body just like we saw on

9:05the reference and for the elbow I'm

9:08going to enable my material

9:10preview and I can see some fults here

9:13which are exactly the elbow so I'll

9:16place my bone here and then press e to

9:19extrude another bone and extrude it all

9:21the way to the wrist which again is

9:23obvious based on this model and texture

9:27detail and then I'll extrude another

9:29bone for the

9:31hand now let's go to the top view and

9:34move this arm on the y- AIS and align it

9:37with the actual model and again I'll try

9:39to keep these bones in the middle of the

9:43geometry in level one I already

9:45mentioned to make the elbow slightly

9:47bent like this a very slight angle is

9:50fine just don't make it straight or

9:52bending the opposite direction this

9:55mostly has to do with the ik setup we'll

9:57only do a basic ik arm setup in this

10:00chapter but it is an important best

10:02practice so please keep it in mind slide

10:05Bend from the top view and from the

10:07front view keep the bones as straight as

10:16possible the legs are similar to the arm

10:19you have a ball socket joint at the hips

10:22it will be your base guide for placing

10:24the leg

10:25bone and the knees and ankles should be

10:28much easier to determine based on the

10:30model itself let's create a new bone

10:33I'll move the bone and align it roughly

10:36with the leg and then from the front

10:38view I'll rotate it

10:40180° again this is because the thick

10:43part of the bone is the pivot point so I

10:45want to align it with the anatomical

10:48point that we just figured out something

10:50else that I want to point out is that if

10:51I create a new bone and rotate it

10:56180° from the side view that will have a

10:59slightly different effect than rotating

11:01it from the front view we'll get into

11:03that in a second when we talk about bone

11:05roll so I'll delete this

11:07bone and place this joint in the knee

11:10area which should be fairly obvious and

11:14then extrud another bone and place it at

11:17the ankle one more bone all the way to

11:20the toes and one more bone for the toes

11:22themselves again I'm giving a slight

11:24angle to the knee and from the front

11:27view I want to keep these bones as

11:30straight as possible I'm not just

11:32aligning them with the mesh I want them

11:34to be fairly straight from the front

11:39view by the way another guideline that I

11:41use for placing this point is to imagine

11:44the side of the hips bone and place this

11:47joint right in the middle of the hips

11:50area next we'll be talking about bone

11:54roll this has to do with the orientation

11:57and rotation of your bones I know it is

12:00not a sexy subject but you will be so

12:02glad that you learned about it because

12:05not understanding bone roll causes a lot

12:08of riging

12:10issues we already have some experience

12:13with selecting bones and pressing

12:16controlr and rolling the

12:19bone but what is this for what's the

12:21point on the Armature tab enable

12:25AIS and that will show the AIS or the

12:28orientations of the bone

12:29now press contrl R and notice how the

12:31axis rotate or Roll Along with the bone

12:35to follow along with me roll these bones

12:37so that the Zed axis is pointing

12:39straight away from the

12:41arm go to pose

12:43mode switch to local orientation mode

12:47and choose the rotation

12:50Gizmo the lower arm does not have a lot

12:52of freedom of rotation it only rotates

12:55on one axis so with this bone roll I can

12:58just rotate on the x-axis and that will

13:01rotate exactly as the lower arm is

13:03supposed to

13:05rotate I'll go back to edit mode select

13:08all of these bones and roll them so that

13:10they're pointing at an

13:11angle go back to pose mode and now

13:15rotating this lower arm on the x-axis

13:18does something that is not realistic and

13:20you may be

13:21thinking well I could just go to this

13:24kind of view and rotate the arm and yes

13:27you could but that is is not ideal it

13:30can cause problems with rig mechanisms

13:33but most importantly your animator is

13:35going to hate you because animators use

13:38animation curves when the bone roll is

13:40properly aligned then the animator will

13:43be able to control this lower arm just

13:45using the curve for the x-axis but with

13:48this kind of messy bone roll they'll

13:51have to think about multiple axis

13:54animation work is already difficult and

13:56this makes it into a nightmare so go

13:59back to edit mode select all of these

14:02bones and roll them so that the Z AIS

14:05points straight away from the

14:09arm and you can do the same for the

14:11shoulder bone in case it is not aligned

14:15well the spine is mostly fine but if you

14:18remember I showed you how to fix the

14:21spine in case you moved it on the

14:24xais and that actually tweak the bone

14:26roll slightly if I select one of the

14:29spine bones and look under nend panel

14:32item you'll see the actual value of the

14:35roll and it is not exactly zero so I can

14:38set it to zero right here or I can

14:40select all bones and press alt R and

14:44that clears the roll or in other words

14:46sets the roll to zero so now the spine

14:49bones are perfectly

14:56aligned in case your leg bones need to

14:58be adjusted select them and press contrl

15:00R and to follow along with me align the

15:03axis exactly as you see here with this Z

15:07pointing away from the knee the hips and

15:09so on I just want to point out that the

15:11Z axis pointing forward like this is not

15:14the ultimate correct answer for example

15:18if I roll the bone so that the X points

15:20forward that is also okay I'm going to

15:23undo a bit earlier in the video I said

15:26that rotating a bone from the front view

15:29has a slightly different effect from

15:31rotating the same bone from the side

15:33view or another view now that you

15:35understand bone roll and axis let's see

15:38what the difference is I'll create a new

15:40Armature for this

15:42demonstration enable in front go to edit

15:45mode select the default bone press R and

15:49rotate it about

15:51180° and I'll place it here then I'll

15:54create a new bone which will have the

15:56exact same orientation as the default

15:58bone then go to side view and rotate it

16:02about

16:04180° and I'll place it next to my

16:06default bone visually these bones look

16:08exactly the same but if we enable axis

16:12you'll see that the x-axis and the Zed

16:14axis are pointing in the exact opposite

16:17direction if I create a new

16:20bone you'll see how the bone axis

16:23rotates with

16:25it and that is why we get a different Ro

16:29depending on The View that we rotate the

16:31bone

16:31in I'm just mentioning this because from

16:34this level onward you really have to pay

16:36attention to Bone roll just looking at

16:39the bone and thinking I guess it looks

16:41okay is not enough anymore so always

16:44keep in mind bone axis and Bone roll

16:47because in pose mode they Define the

16:49rotation of the bone here for example if

16:52I rotate this bone on positive X it

16:55swings in this direction whereas this

16:57bone with the opposite AIS if I give it

17:00a positive x value it rotates in the

17:02opposite direction so bone roll is

17:05important to define the exact rotation

17:07of a bone bone roll is an even deeper

17:10rabbit hole that we're going to explore

17:12in level three intermediate

17:15rigging in pose mode it also has to do

17:18with this rotation

17:20mode for now just try to keep the axis

17:24nice and clean so that rotating on just

17:26one axis produces a natural

17:30result such as bending the lower

17:33arm or if we look at the upper arm Zed

17:37rotation is up and down and X rotation

17:40is forward and back so that is it keep

17:43the axis clean great I think this part

17:46wasn't too difficult so let's go

17:48straight into the next one in which

17:50We'll add fingers and the fingers will

17:53help us understand bone roll on an even

17:56deeper level