Mesh and Armature

General Forums Blender and CG Discussions
1

Hello!

I’m still new to blender. I have a question about Armatures. Can you only place an armature in a single mesh body or is it possible to place it on a model that’s made of multiple mesh objects? It seems that one could create more complex/interesting characters from many objects rather then one single mesh…

Thanks,
rich!

2

you can do all kinds of things with armatures, including both these things you suggest.

3

Absolutely! I think that it is rare situation to have character made of only one mesh. You can parent any number of objects to a single armature. You can even use more than one armature in a single object (although I don’t know how this can be usable;-))

4

Thanks for the reply!
I’m still learning blender so please bear with me… I create a character made of multiple meshes/objects. And then I create an Armature. Do I parent the objects together first or just parent them (in place) right to the armature?

Thanks,
rich!

5

Parent them in place.

If you are making a robotic type character (rigid arms, for example, that don’t morph vertices), it’s much better to parent each object to a particular bone.

To do this, you must be in pose mode with the armature. Then right-click the object you want to parent to the bone, then shift-right-click the bone (yes, it’s confusing), then parent. Here’s a :48 sec vid of me doing that:

6

Blinkozo!

Outstanding! Thank you!
-rich

7

Hey Blinkozo - THanks for the video. I tried it myself and it works perfectly. Another question - for animated this, do I need to key frame every bone? I set Auto IK on and can pose nicely by moving the last bone on the chain, but the poses don’t seem to stick in the timeline for any of the bones other than the one I’m dragging… THoughts?

thanks,
rich!

8

Just set the IK bones. They will also drag the others along when rendering.