Rigging Sucks... but it makes your characters move! 🤷

0:00welcome to rigging isn't scary the

0:02course that will teach you how to rig in

0:04blender from beginner to a confident

0:06intermediate level I spent over 4 months

0:09creating this course and I'm releasing

0:12it completely for free this would have

0:13been difficult without the sponsor of

0:15this video skillshare we'll talk more

0:18about them later on but first let's

0:20check out what you're going to learn in

0:22level one you probably won't believe how

0:25much progress you're going to make in

0:27just five short

0:28lessons you will learn the basics of

0:31Bones and then immediately apply that to

0:34an actual character you will learn the

0:36number one rigging mechanism that you

0:39absolutely need to know about we'll

0:41cover weight painting improving the

0:43usability of your rig even some

0:45animation and we'll finish the section

0:47with a special Challenge and that is

0:50just the beginners videos you also have

0:52the novice and intermediate series to

0:55look forward to if you want to keep

0:57leveling up rigging can mean different

0:59things

1:00and it can get very complex crazy rig

1:04automations Python scripts Dynamic bones

1:07rag dolls cloth and even muscle

1:10simulation are all parts of rigging but

1:13in the most fundamental sense rigging

1:16means using so-called bones to deform

1:19and control your 3D character this

1:22course focuses on the fundamentals you

1:24have to learn them first if you lack

1:27fundamentals the cool advanced stuff

1:30will seem impossibly complex but if you

1:32learn the fundamentals things will start

1:35to make

1:36sense so we need to understand blender

1:39bones here is a crash course bones exist

1:42in the Armature object so press shift a

1:48Armature similar to meshes armatures

1:51have

1:52modes object mode edit mode and pae mode

1:56edit mode is where we create bones so

1:59let's go into to edit mode now you can

2:02select the default bone by clicking on

2:04it then you can use g r and s to move

2:08rotate and scale it

2:11freely you can also use the gizmos they

2:14are great when you need

2:17Precision very important the bone has

2:19two ends the thick end is called Head

2:23and the thin one is called tail pay

2:25special attention to the head because it

2:27is the pivot point of the bone

2:30you can select each of these ends and

2:33move them using

2:36G so when we created the Armature we got

2:40this default bone but really the

2:42Armature is a container of Bones you can

2:45have as many as you want so move this

2:48bone out of the way and to create a new

2:50bone you can simply press shift a in

2:53edit mode and the bone will appear at

2:55the 3D

2:57cursor and another way to create a bone

2:59is is to select an existing bone and

3:01then press shift d to duplicate the bone

3:05nice you can create bones now another

3:07essential skill is parenting bones so

3:10select a bone then shift select another

3:13bone and press crl p and choose keep

3:16offset you'll notice a dotted line

3:19indicating the parenting the first bone

3:21we selected became the child and the

3:23second one is the parent more about that

3:26in a minute now I'm going to create

3:27another bone

3:30shift select this bone press contrl p

3:33and this time let's choose connected now

3:36the bones are not only parented but

3:39connected to each other you'll see how

3:41connected and unconnected parenting

3:43differ very soon and here is another way

3:45to create connected

3:47bones if I select this bone and right

3:50click and choose subdivide that will

3:52create two connected bones and finally

3:55if I select the tail of any bone and

3:57press E I can extrude

4:00bones and the new bones are connected to

4:03each other now you are a pro at creating

4:06and parenting bones but if I move any of

4:08these parent bones they don't seem to

4:11affect their

4:13children that is because we're still in

4:15edit mode edit mode is awesome because

4:18it allows us to establish a rest pose or

4:22a default pose for our bones without

4:25worrying about the relationship between

4:27these

4:28bones let's switch to pose mode right

4:30away you'll notice that the color of the

4:32bones changed to bluish in edit mode

4:36they were yellow and in POS mode we are

4:39going to start seeing the parent child

4:41relationship between the bones and again

4:44notice the Pivot Point on which the bone

4:46rotates it is the thick end of the

4:49bone and the difference between keep

4:52offset and connected parenting is that

4:54if I graap this child which was parented

4:57with keep offset I can still move it

4:59freely whereas the connected bones

5:02always stay connected to the

5:05apparent now you can manipulate these

5:07bones by pressing g r or S feel free to

5:11play with them to get a sense of how

5:13they work and don't worry if it's still

5:16a bit confusing it will make more sense

5:18in the Practical example notice that if

5:20I switch back to edit mode the bones

5:23will jump to their default or rest

5:25position bones are always in their

5:28default position in edit mode if I go

5:30back to pose mode I can select all bones

5:33and go to pose clear transform all to

5:36reset the pose bones to the default

5:39position that was a lot of information I

5:42know so here is a cheat sheet but these

5:44are basic operations that we are going

5:47to be using over and over and they will

5:50become second nature to you by the end

5:52of this beginner series next we are

5:54jumping into a rigging practice session

5:57so if you want to learn rigging just

5:59keep watching

6:00this is the only course you need but if

6:02you're looking to pick up other creative

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6:45looking forward to diving deeper into

6:47this one myself and I think this course

6:50and other animation courses you can find

6:52on skillshare can be a good companion to

6:55rigging isn't scary my own animation

6:57skills are not quite there yet so I

7:00don't expect to make an animation course

7:03anytime soon so if you're looking to

7:05learn the whole rigging and animation

7:07skill set then rigging isn't scary and

7:10skillshare could be a winning

7:12combination and as a special offer for

7:15CG die viewers the first 500 people to

7:18use my link in the description will get

7:20one month free trial of skillshare so

7:24grab yours before they're gone now back

7:26to rigging it's time for practice as a

7:29practical example we'll be rigging this

7:32simple character to follow along get the

7:34start file for free from the link in the

7:37video description here are a few best

7:40practices you should follow for your

7:41mesh make sure the character is in the

7:43center of the world standing on the

7:45ground plane from the front view it

7:48should be standing straight and facing

7:50forward meaning that you can see the

7:53character's face looking at you the pose

7:56should be a pose or t pose make sure it

8:00is scaled correctly which you can do by

8:02checking the end panel item here I can

8:06see that the Z Dimension is about 1.8 m

8:10which is fine also notice that location

8:12and rotation are set to 0 0 and scale is

8:17111 these are the ideal default values

8:20finally set the 3D cursor at world

8:22origin by pressing shift s cursor to

8:25world origin and now we can start

8:27rigging press shift a and choose

8:29Armature because we said the 3D cursor

8:32in the center of the scene the Armature

8:35was created there this is ideal do not

8:38move the imur in object mode when we

8:41select the amateur you'll notice three

8:43specialized stabs in the properties

8:45panel you'll have to learn these to

8:47become better at trigging but don't

8:49worry you can do it one step at a time

8:51now we're going to go to the Armature

8:53tab expand viewport display and enable

8:56in front and you'll see how the bone is

9:00no longer occluded by the mesh this will

9:02make positioning our bones inside the

9:04character much easier now I can go to

9:07edit mode by pressing tab next we going

9:09to create a chain of connected bones

9:11that looks like this and if you want to

9:13become good quickly here is a challenge

9:15pause the video and try to do it

9:17yourself and then we'll do it together

9:20okay the spine needs to be right in the

9:21center and our default bone is already

9:23in the center so here is a trick switch

9:26to side view and then start positioning

9:28your bone by moving the bone only in the

9:30side view I can be sure that the spine

9:33will stay perfectly straight and align

9:36with the center line of the character

9:38next to create my chain of Bones I'm

9:40simply going to extrude three bones for

9:43the spine area and then one bone for the

9:45neck and one for the

9:48head and that's it next we're going to

9:51create a chain of four bones for the leg

9:53that looks like this okay so I'm going

9:56to press shift a to create a new bone

9:58move the bone on the

10:01xaxis switch to the side view rotate the

10:06bone scale it down and position it I

10:09rotated this bone because again the

10:12thick part of the bone is the pivot

10:14point and we want the thigh to rotate

10:17from this point and extrude one bone for

10:21the shin one bone for the foot and one

10:24for the

10:25toes in the front view select the whole

10:28chain and and rotate it slightly to

10:31match the

10:34leg here is an important tip make the

10:37knee slightly bent forward this will

10:39help with a special mechanism coming up

10:42in the next video okay that's it for the

10:45leg okay next we want an

10:48arm from the front view I'll select the

10:51spine bone press shift T to duplicate it

10:54and then rotate it to match the arm

10:57notice how the bone rotated slightly on

10:59its own axis when I oriented it to the

11:01arm if you press crlr you can tweak the

11:04so-called roll of the bone bone roll is

11:07very important and we'll learn more

11:09about bone axis and orientations later

11:12in the course for now adjust the roll so

11:14that only one side of the bone is

11:16visible from the front view now I'm

11:19going to scale up this

11:21bone then right click and subdivided so

11:24we are practicing different ways to

11:26create connected Bones forur the hand

11:28I'm going to select the tail of the

11:30lower arm and press e to extrude a new

11:36bone make sure you check your bones from

11:39different

11:43angles I'll push these bones inside the

11:46volume of the

11:48character again I'm making the elbow

11:51slightly

11:56bent optionally you can select the hand

11:59bone Shifty and duplicate it and

12:01position it roughly inside the thumb of

12:04the

12:09character and finally we're going to

12:11create a shoulder bone looking something

12:13like this I'm sure you can do it

12:16yourself so shift a to create a new bone

12:20switch to front view rotate the

12:23bone position it in the shoulder area

12:27and push it inside the character

12:34in the upper left corner you can see the

12:36name of your selected bone and all of

12:38our bones are currently named bone in a

12:41number that is not good so we need to

12:43rename them and the easiest way to name

12:45a bone is to select it and press

12:47f2 and I'll name my first spine spine

12:50one then select the next bone you can

12:54also go to the Bone Tab and name the

12:56bone over here in this field

13:00I like the shortcuts so I'll select the

13:02next bone and name it spine

13:05three

13:07neck head okay now we come to the part

13:11of the rig that has a left side and a

13:13right side and we only created the left

13:16side here is why I'll name this bone

13:20shoulder DOL and in a second that will

13:23allow us to symmetrize these bones so

13:26that we don't need to manually create

13:28the symmetrical part

13:31this will be upper

13:34arml so all of the remaining bones will

13:37have L lower

13:42arml

13:44handl

13:47fingerl

13:49THL shin.

13:52L

13:54footl

13:57tol with these names I can now select

13:59all of the bones with a then right click

14:02and choose symmetrize symmetrize is also

14:06found under the Armature menu in edit

14:09mode so with one click we created the

14:12right side of the symmetrical character

14:14however if I decide to tweak a bone

14:16you'll see that only one side moves if

14:18you want to keep both sides in sync you

14:21can press the x button here and it is

14:23also found under tool options xais

14:27mirror with this I can move just one

14:30side of the ring and the opposite side

14:32will stay in sync so this is our basic

14:35skeleton but if we go to POS mode and

14:38try to move the spine for example some

14:41parts move with the spine but for

14:43example the shoulders are disconnected

14:45and so are the

14:46legs and this has to do with parenting

14:49so let's go back to edit mode and I want

14:52to make the arm a child of the shoulder

14:55if you want to challenge pause and try

14:56to do it yourself okay so I'll select

14:59the upper arm first then shift select

15:01the shoulder so that it will become the

15:03parent I'll press contrl p and choose

15:06keep offset if I go back to pose

15:10mode you'll see that the upper arm is

15:12now parented to the shoulder and what is

15:15cool is that the right side was parented

15:17for me automatically that is again

15:19because in edit mode I have the X option

15:22enabled so now all I need to do is

15:24select one shoulder bone and parent it

15:26to the last spine bone contr P keep

15:30offset and the thigh bone I want to

15:32parent to the first spine bone contrl P

15:35keep offset and finally I need to parent

15:37the finger or the thumb to the hand

15:41contrl P keep

15:43offset now in pose mode everything

15:46should be connected

15:53up but there is just one tiny problem

15:56the mesh is not moving with these bones

15:59the character mesh needs to be connected

16:01to the bones using vertex weights and

16:04we'll learn a lot about that later in

16:06the course but as a beginner here is all

16:08you need to know go to object mode

16:12select your character and if you have

16:14multiple meshes you can select all of

16:15them and finally shift select your

16:18Armature the order is very important the

16:21Armature needs to be selected last and

16:24it will have this light orange color now

16:26press contrl p and choose automatic

16:29equates select the armateur go back to

16:31pose mode and move any of the

16:35bones and the amateur is now deforming

16:38your character feel free to play with

16:40your character you can select any bone

16:43and rotate it so most bones you'll just

16:47rotate only with the main spine bone you

16:49can move around and that will move the

16:51whole character in

16:53space you can also move any bones that

16:56are not connected to other bones that

16:58will kind of pull the geometry which can

17:00be funny but for semi-realistic results

17:03you don't want to do

17:07that if you want to reset your character

17:09to the default pose again select all

17:11bones go to pose clear transform

17:15all and if we look again at the clear

17:17transfer menu instead of all we can also

17:20clear location rotation or scale

17:23individually and the shortcuts are alt G

17:25alt R alt s so if I move the character I

17:30can press alt G to reset the location if

17:32I rotate it I can press alt R to reset

17:35the rotation and if I scale it I can

17:37press alt s to reset the scale and this

17:40is something I do often instead of going

17:41to this

17:45menu I just press alt G alt R alt s and

17:49the rig will be reset much faster and

17:51this resetting of the pose is an

17:54incredible blender feature and it may

17:56not be available in other 3 software you

17:59just created an armateur or a rig and

18:02now it deforms your character this is a

18:05major milestone for anyone trying to

18:08learn rigging so take a minute to

18:10celebrate however this is the simplest

18:13rig possible blender allows us to create

18:16automated mechanisms in our rig using a

18:18system of constraints and in the next

18:21video which will be short and sweet you

18:23will learn the most important rigging

18:26constraint and the most important

18:28rigging mechanism whenever you're ready

18:30let's move on