Hello! I have never rigged a character before in Blender but have done so in Maya. I was looking to see if you guys could lend a helping hand!
Question 1: Would you suggest using rigify? And if so, is it possible to add a facial rig to the character?
The reason I ask is because I’m rubbish at rigging, haha any help I can get is excellent.
Question 2: Imagine two big spheres. These are my characters eyes. Instead of rigging the eyes I would like to add another plane on top of the spheres and curve it to match! And then slide this surface across the top of my spheres. This would be used as the pupil. Any suggestions on how to achieve that? Or a tutorial
You may be able to do this with the Shrinkwrap modifier, although that may also be a cumbersome way to approach it. You might want to consider instead using shape keys as covered in this Blender Cookie tutorial.
Keep in mind when you’re rigging with Rigify:
Rigify is similar to HumanIK except the rig control panel you end up with is not as pretty as HumanIK,
because of the differences in axis orientation between Maya and Blender, you’ll want to have your body parts rotating around the X-axis rather than (if memory serves) the Z-axis,
you’ll want the Z-axis pointing in the direction the body part rotates; if you imagine the rotation of (for instance) a finger joint where the finger is bent 90 degrees, that’s the direction you want the Z-axis pointing,
in the Properties window, go into the Armature tab, the Display panel and click the box beside Axis to see which way the axes are pointing, and
make changes to the default pose of the armature in Edit Mode rather than Pose Mode.
You can also watch some tutorials on Rigify that go into far more detail:
I’m not a fan of rigify, so I would say “just learn” Its really not much effort to make a rig when you now how its done, the tools blender supplies for building an armature are pretty good, that… and bone constraints, mean it doesnt take too long at all… It takes me around an hour to build a humanoid rig with IK,FK switches, hand rigs (with finger bones) and foot rigs (with roll bones)…
the benefits of learning how to rig are huge… firstly you know how your rig works. secondly, if you need to add anything to it, you will find it easier, finally. its just useful to know how to do it, so you can know how others have done it…
ON the other hand, using a standardized rig such as the rigify rig can be useful when importing mocaps… I make my own complex rigs in blender, but I use a simple armature with the humanIK, FBIK rig in maya
I heartily agree that everyone should learn rigging; don’t get me wrong.
The main reason I suggest Rigify is for the IK/FK snapping. I have yet to start learning the animation side, but I’ve heard horror stories about trying to animate without IK/FK snapping. I keep hoping it’ll show up in Blender Cookie’s FlexiRig, too, but so far I haven’t seen or read anything about it. Mind you, that doesn’t mean Nathan and Beorn aren’t toiling away behind closed doors trying to work it out. What will all the other features they’ve managed to stuff into that rig, it ain’t going to be a walk in the park.
I’ve created my facial rig
And I’ve got the rigify character rig going
I’m just having trouble connecting the two.
I’m not savvy with the terms, but let me explain it this way:
When I select the Head Rig and go into pose mode, it is separated from the rigify rig and I have no idea how to parent them together.
Yep. I’m sure it’s a real easy answer, but I am completely stumped.
Thanks for your time, again!
EDIT: And after a good night’s sleep I figured out all I had to do was join the two via CTRL J.
Again, thank you for your previous help
any help I can get is excellent.
Its really not much effort to make a rig when you now how its done, the tools blender supplies for building an armature are pretty good, that… and bone constraints, mean it doesnt take too long at all… It takes me around an hour to build a humanoid rig with IK,FK switches, hand rigs (with finger bones) and foot rigs (with roll bones)…