RIGGING L1-3 : Solid Weight Painting Workflow

0:00this video is designed to expand your

0:02rigging toolkit you will learn how to

0:05improve your character's deformations

0:07using weight painting this is a major

0:10obstacle for many people but I'll show

0:13you a reliable workflow that works every

0:16time and you'll get to know a set of

0:18tools to organize your rig and make it

0:21look more professional the best part is

0:24these are simple techniques that you can

0:26learn in a couple of minutes each and

0:29use right way this video is sponsored by

0:31brilliant I'll share more about them

0:33later on but now let's start off with a

0:36couple of important weight painting tips

0:38the first set of tips will be in the

0:40weight painting category weights are the

0:42connection between your mesh and your

0:44bones so what if your character was a

0:46little bit more complex and consists of

0:49multiple objects that is actually not a

0:51huge

0:52problem here I have a head model I'll

0:55place it on my character's

0:58head then select all mes shift select

1:01the amateur press contrl P choose

1:04automatic weights as before go to pose

1:08mode and all of your meshes should move

1:11with the rig just for your information

1:14sometimes automatic weights fails

1:16especially with complex characters you

1:18will get a warning at the bottom of the

1:20interface which you may miss and your

1:23character will not move with the rig but

1:26keep following the course and you will

1:28learn how to handle any weight painting

1:31situation next we'll go into custom

1:33weight painting which can help you

1:35improve the character deformations and

1:38I'm going to give you the workflow and

1:40settings that I always use they work

1:43like a charm I'll go to object mode have

1:47your Armature selected shift and select

1:49the mesh that you want to weight paint

1:51and go to Weight paint

1:53mode in the end panel switch your brush

1:56to add if using a slightly new version

1:59of blend your brushes will look like

2:01this and there is no add brush but

2:04that's okay these brushes here are just

2:06quick presets so just switch blend to

2:10add here and then you can keep following

2:13the tutorial the rest of the settings

2:15will be the

2:16same set strength to

2:20about2 under options enable auton

2:23normalize auton normalize is probably

2:27the most important option in weight

2:29paint always have it on you'll learn

2:32more about that in level two and three

2:34of the course for now suffice it to say

2:37that this option will keep your weights

2:39nice and clean under symmetry if your

2:42character is completely symmetrical you

2:45can enable mirror vertex groups and the

2:47X option if your character is not

2:49completely symmetrical you should

2:51disable these options and you'll have to

2:54paint on both sides

2:55individually my character is symmetrical

2:59so I will enable these options to start

3:02painting alt and click or you can

3:04control shift and click on a bone and

3:06that will select it and enable the

3:08vertex group now you can rotate and move

3:11this

3:12bone and if you click on the mes that

3:14will affect the weights by clicking I'm

3:17adding weights if I controll and click I

3:19can subtract weights usually the arm

3:22affects too much of the body so I can

3:25control click on the body or I can alt

3:28and click on the body bone and and paint

3:30positive weights by just clicking and

3:32that will remove weights from the arm so

3:35the body is one area that always gets

3:37messed up another one is the face you'll

3:39see that the chin is kind of

3:42yellowish and when I rotate the head it

3:45doesn't quite follow the bone so I just

3:46have to click on it and it will deform

3:50better and finally you can shift and

3:53click to smooth weights smoothing is an

3:56important technique and it can help

3:58improve the areas where the influences

4:01of two bones overlap such as the arm and

4:04the shoulder these are not just the

4:07basics of weight painting but this is

4:09how I actually weight paint most of the

4:11time people seem to think that there are

4:14Advanced and secret weight painting

4:17techniques and sure you'll learn more in

4:20level two and three of the course but

4:22just memorize or write down the settings

4:25and shortcuts I shared in this video and

4:28you will have learned earned about 80%

4:31of weight painting next we'll go into a

4:33couple of simple tricks you can use to

4:35improve your rig first we are going to

4:37create a root bone a root is a bone that

4:40moves the entire rig and it is useful in

4:44various ways for example when setting

4:46the initial position of your rig or to

4:49make your character walk in space we

4:52will do just that in an animation

4:54exercise which is coming very soon I'll

4:57go to edit mode if the the cursor is not

5:00at the center press shift s cursor to

5:03world origin press shift a to add a new

5:05bone F2 and name this bone

5:10root grab its tail and push it down a

5:13bit to make it smaller what we need to

5:15do now is parent any bones that are not

5:17parented to other bones to the root in

5:20our simple rig that is just the first

5:22spine bone and the two ik bones I'll

5:26select them all then shift select the

5:28root press contrl p and choose keep

5:31offset now in P mode this bone should

5:34move the entire character something else

5:37you can learn quickly is that some bones

5:39are supposed to deform the character and

5:42some aren't in a simple rig the non

5:45deforming bones are the root the ik

5:48targets and the ik poles so if we go to

5:51the Bone tab there is a deform option

5:54and we have to untick it for these bones

5:56but first let's see why we are doing

5:59this

6:00for example if I rotate the foot you'll

6:03see that the heel does not rotate with

6:05it that is because the heel is affected

6:08by the ik Target if I select the shin

6:10and go to my constraints I can disable

6:13the ik constraint for a second by

6:15clicking on this IE icon and now if I

6:18move the ik target you'll see how it

6:20deforms the heel to prevent this first

6:23go to the Bone top and disable the form

6:26for all of these

6:28bones so the ik targets the root and the

6:32ik

6:34poles and finally go to object mode

6:37select your mesh or meshes shift select

6:40the I last press contrl p and choose

6:43automatic weights which will recalculate

6:45the automatic

6:47weights now in POS mode moving the

6:49target does not deform the character

6:51this is

6:52perfect so I have to select the shin and

6:55reenable my ik constraint

7:00I hope you enjoying rigging isn't scary

7:02we are just getting started next we'll

7:04dive into another fundamental rigging

7:06tool bone shapes throughout the course

7:08you'll hear me talk about fundamentals

7:11again and again and I take that very

7:13seriously myself lately I've been

7:15brushing up my math fundamentals using

7:18brilliant who are kindly sponsoring this

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7:36skills step by step so I've been using

7:39brilliant to strengthen my math

7:41fundamentals in the hopes that it will

7:43help me pick up some Advanced blender

7:45skills such as geometry notes what I

7:47enjoy most is the gamification of the

7:50learning experience which makes you want

7:52to keep learning that is similar to

7:54playing a game but rather than wasting

7:56your time you are developing a daily

7:58learning habit and building up your

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8:04for 30 days by visiting brilliant.org

8:07slcg dive or by clicking the link in the

8:10description you'll also get 20% off an

8:13annual premium subscription again I

8:15would like to thank brilliant for their

8:17support which made it possible to

8:18release this extensive ring course for

8:20free now let's learn about bone shapes

8:24this rig already works but the bones are

8:27constantly visible through the mesh

8:29again this is because we enabled infront

8:31in the Armature tab so you can disable

8:34it and you can still select the bones

8:36but they can be hard to select so we can

8:38use something called bone shapes if you

8:41go to the Bone tab viewport display and

8:43you'll see custom object let's go to

8:46object mode press shift a mesh and

8:49create a circle and press f2 and name

8:53it bone shape

8:57Circle I can place it into a new

9:03collection and I can even hide the

9:05collection now go back to my

9:08rig enable in front for now then go back

9:12to the Bone

9:14tab pose

9:16mode select any of the

9:20bones and set the custom shape to bone

9:23shape

9:24Circle so now our bone looks like a

9:27circle but it will behave exactly as

9:30before I want this circle flat on the

9:32ground so I'm going to rotate it 90° on

9:36the

9:38xais I can make it a little bit bigger

9:42that is just a visual

9:44thing and now I have a shape that is

9:46much easier to select and now I'm going

9:49to go ahead and apply this circle to all

9:52of my bones you can have any shapes you

9:54like but I just want to show you that

9:55just adding circles makes things so much

9:58nicer so for example I'll go to the

10:01thigh give it a bone shape Circle rotate

10:04it as

10:08needed scale it down I could also move

10:10it on the y- AIS to position it exactly

10:13as I want and I'll repeat this process

10:15for the left side of the character and

10:17the spine

10:32a little trick you can do is select all

10:35bones that you want to apply the same

10:36shape to then select another bone that

10:38already has this shape then go to custom

10:41object right click and choose copy to

10:43select it then you can right click on

10:45the rotation for example and choose copy

10:47all to selected and that will Orient all

10:50Bones the same

10:55way now I didn't do the right side

10:58because I can go to edit mode mode

11:00select all of the left side

11:02bones right click and choose symmetrize

11:06go to pose mode and it's all set for me

11:08now I can go to the Armature Tab and

11:10disable in front and you'll see that I

11:12can still see my bones but they don't

11:15occlude the character let me give shapes

11:17to the pulse as

11:22well something else that you can do here

11:25in the bone tab is set bone colors so

11:27I'll select all fine

11:30Bones the neck bone and the head bone

11:34and give them the yellow color for po

11:36bone color and if I click this button it

11:39will be applied to all selected bones

11:42I'll then select all Bones on the left

11:48side and give them the red color and

11:50again paste this to all selected bones

11:53and then all Bones on the right side

12:00give them a blue color and copy

12:02that for the root I'm going to set a

12:06special purple

12:10color and I'm going to make a couple of

12:13simple tweaks to make my bones even

12:15easier to

12:18see now there are a couple of bones that

12:21are never

12:23animated the ik controls the whole leg

12:26so I can select these leg bones

12:30and I want to move them to a separate

12:32bone collection first let's go to the

12:34aracha tab to see exactly what will

12:36happen here you can see the new bone

12:38collections which were introduced in

12:40blend 4 so if I press M I can move these

12:44bones to a new collection I'll call it

12:46hidden or something like that click

12:48create and a new collection was created

12:51and the leg bones were moved to it so if

12:54I press this I icon to disable the

12:56visibility the bones will become

12:58invisible keep in mind that they're

13:00still there they're just hidden so my

13:02rig will still work without unnecessary

13:05bones getting in the way in just 10

13:07minutes we learned weight painting and

13:10made our rig much easier to use not too

13:13shabby you are almost at the finish line

13:15so keep going as a big finale in level

13:18one of the course we are going to have a

13:20special rigging challenge but before

13:23that let's talk about animation even if

13:25you want to specialize in rigging you

13:28have to know some some animation

13:30fundamentals so in the next video we'll

13:33create a walk cycle for this guy and

13:35along the way you will learn about

13:37frames key frames and other animation

13:41Concepts let's move on