I am still a bit out of breath from my finish on version 6 of my character rig designed for my movie project(s), and my focus has gone back to mostly being on the movie itself. But slowly, ever so slowly, I am starting to set up version 7. This one will aim at more realism, hopefully with near-realistic body, both in still looks and animation, while the face will hopefully see some improvements in looks, although animation of it will still be limited. Moreover, the aim is to make a system for reshaping the rig into other characters, with different parametrics that… You know what, I’ll start a blog on the side for all those rants. For now, I just used Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man as a basis for proportions. I’ll get the blog running and explain more stuff there, soon. A quick picture of the starting shot for version 7:
So, yeah, things are getting weird already. I haven’t set up the blog yet, so quick summary: I am doing a very detailed job this time, including first doing an actual skeleton, then muscle rig, then the outer skin. I need all the nitty gritty to get the results I want. Aaaand that includes the bones. So I have rigged and modelled a complete spine inside the outline. And by rigged, I mean each vertebra, 24 in all (C1-C7, T1-T12, and L1-L5). This allows far more realistic motion. It also makes it a complete mess to control, at least for now, as seen by what should have been just a turn of the back and neck along the Z-axis:
Tried a slightly alternate, more cumbersome approach. Minor improvement, more another time. Need go sleepy sleep now…
So the “Child of” modifier and regular parenting are clearly WORLDS apart! It took some time to redo the whole spine, but this seeeeeems to work now… A few poses of increasing wackiness, the last with a shot of the spine alone (ewww…):
Got the rib cage modelled. No bones yet (ironically…), so just a T-pose. If my anatomy studies the last three days are to be believed, rigging it might be a bit tricky, but after what I went through with the spine, it should be plausible…
Edit: I just noriced that the ribs are a bit, ehm, ‘perky’? Imay need to slouch them a bit before rigging. Time will tell!
Just wonering if you’ve seen this, considering the approach you wish to take with this version:
I have LOVED advanced muscle and bone add-ons since my 3D MAX days (oh my Zod, hasit really been 20 years??), but Iwant / need the rig to function on other machines, without any add-ons (that do not come standard with Blender of course). If anyone has some good videos of muscle add-ons in action, however, they help a lot, and actually inspired my skeleton-and-muscles approach!
Rib cage animation was NOT easy. Those suckers twist in weird ways, and I never even expected them to be flexible, but extensive online anatomy lessons sure dang well showed me, yessir! Dem critters be like wrattle sneks in da muck! Sorry, I’ll stop…
Anyways, the ribs seem to bend along with thoracic movement, i.e. movement of vertebra (pieces of the spine, from top to bottom) 8-19. The ‘thoracic’ part is important, as much movement of the spine is actually the vertebra below that, a.k.a. the lumbar (yes, anatomy is a great source for alien names). Nonetheless, the example images use thoracic rotation only, meaning a body bending like that would usually see less bending of the ribs, and more in the lower back. Mommy, look, I’m a doctor now!
Edit: Oh, and the big issue was actually the sternum, i.e. the chest bone where ribs merge in front. It is rigid (in the rig, only mostly rigid IRL), meaning ribs need to bend while lining up. Not easy. But the chest now deforms as realistically as I can currently manage, and along with an added bone (named ‘lungs’), the chest can raise and lower and the rib cage expand, all to show breathing. It’s the little details that govern the big picture, after all!
You might have already seen this project but if not it is well worth looking at as a reference. Melodicpinpon is doing a great job.
Iiiiiiiiiiinteresting… I must study this, whether or not it is now 2 am… Thank you, kind stranger!
Be warned the file is HEAVY but he has basically modelled the whole body muscular system nerve system etc!
Better to sleep first 
No sleep, must nerd out on anatomy!
Hi there @Embassy_of_Time ,
if you like to geek on Blender and Anatomy; check this:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/z-anatomy
The biomechanics part has been forked from the rest of the model and can be found o,n the 'How to ’ page of the website under the ‘Armature’ button. Beware to that part, it becomes heavily nerdy : )
YUMMY!!! Thank you, I definitely will!!
Just a quick note to say that updates will be slowed for a while. I kinda got burnout from rushing right from version 6 to 7, and on the side making and using the tools for turning this work into a movie. Don’t worry, everything is going ahead just fine (actually, a bit better than fine in some spots), I just need to take a break. I’ll be writing some tabletop RPG stuff I got going on, just for a few days to ground myself, see you after that 
I’m not really back in Blender action yet, but I did the shins just quick. Never quite understood the function of the fibula, so I just grouped it with the tibia vertex group. I need more knowledge! Oh, and can anyone guess what the pose is?? Just checking the quality of my work…
I nearly left my popcorn in the bush…glad yr back?
Is this the pose, that you do, just before you do ‘The Crane’ from Karate Kid?
Noooooo… I hope it’s not too hard to see… 