Connecting two objects with a single armature

I am trying to connect my character’s head to its body. I have an armature, rigged to control the character, and it is functioning correctly for the body (which is a separate object/mesh from the head), but the head stays in place when I move the character, and doesn’t move when I bend or rotate the neck.

There is a single armature. The bones assigned to control the parts of the body work fine, and the bones assigned to control the parts of the head/face seem to be working also. The only problem is that they don’t move together/aren’t connected.

So far, I’ve tried joining the head to the body by selecting both meshes and using the CTRL+J command. I’ve also tried following the tutorial posted here, https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/19313/character-made-with-multiple-objects-one-armature-or-different-armatures, but maybe I’m doing something wrong?

I right-clicked on the head, then shift+right-clicked on the armature. I switched to pose mode, then I right-clicked on the bone that is at the top of the neck (This bone is called Head_Attach), pressed CTRL+P, and selected “With Automatic Weights”.

So can anyone assist me in solving this?

Thank you to anyone who can help. ; - )

Are you trying to connect the head and body so they’re a seamless mesh or do you just want them to move together when you animate the armature? It’s a little unclear at this point.

The tutorial is wrong. It says to parent to the selected bones with ctrl+P -> with automatic weights. That doesn’t add weights to include selected bones, but all of them. Same as using the parenting shortcut in object mode.

If the goal is to only weight it to selected, could add armature modifier to the mesh object. Then set the armature in pose mode and the mesh type object in weight paint mode, select the bone(s) and then weights menu -> assign automatic from bones. It adds the vertex groups with bone names and automatic weights, but only for the selected bones.

Parenting is not a requirement for armature deform to work. The mesh is linked to the armature with the armature modifier, and when vertex groups are used on it, it matches bones and vertex groups with the name.

I guess it depends on exactly what is necessary to accomplish making the character look and move as if it’s in one piece. Most importantly, they need to move together, but they need to do so as if they are actually connected.

Can you help me understand exactly how I’m supposed to do this? What mesh needs the armature modifier (head, body, or both)? How do I set armature and mesh type object?

I get the hang of things rather quickly, I just need to know what I’m looking for. Can someone give me a quick walkthrough of how to do this? Assuming it is what I need in order to accomplish what I’m trying to do.

Thanks for the help so far.

There are multiple options depending on how the armature needs to control the parts. You were asking about how to connect the head that is a separate object to the armature so that’s the one that would need the armature modifier. But the modifier is in deform category for a reason. It’s most useful if your meshes actually need to deform along with armature bones. If the parts just move, static/rigid in other words, like a robot with metal parts, could just parent the parts to the bones.

If it’s one surface that deforms, you need to join the head to the body object and connect the mesh parts. Just like human skin. Then you can weight the head mesh to the corresponding bones.

So do we when trying to help with an issue. You haven’t used visuals when explaining what you’re trying to do and an example .blend is missing in your post. That means we can’t know what you’re actually working with, if there are other problems that prevent you from doing what you want or following instructions, and you’re not helping giving you the exact answers you’re asking.

Ok, well, I tried explaining it clearly. If I wasn’t clear enough, all you had to do was say so.

Anyway, I’ve already figured this out on my own: In Pose Mode, in Armature>Pose, select the bone at the top of the head hierarchy, then Shift select the bone you need to connect it to (G_Head_Attach in my case.) in 3D view. Switch to Edit Mode, press Ctrl+P, and select Connected. Switch to Pose mode, and the head will move with the body.

This seems to be working for me. I’m posting it here in case it’s helpful to anyone else.