I spent the last two or so months preparing a tutorial series about Rigify. If you struggle with rigging I think you’ll have a lot of fun with it. Rigify is a free addon that’s part of Blender and it basically automates the rigging process. It’s very powerful.
It can be hard to get started with but once you are up and running you’ll be rigging any character with ease.
Here are some characters we’ll be rigging together:
(note: the dragon and two-headed ogre are from advanced chapters that are not ready yet. But it’s perfectly feasible to create rigs like that)
Based on the questions I see on Blender artists, reddit, stack exchange etc it seems like people have two main problems with Rigify:
I get an error and it makes no sense.
I want to add more functionality to the meta-rigs but I don’t know how.
With this series, I try to tackle both issues. So by the end you’ll be able to build any custom rig you desire. And you’ll know how to handle errors when they arise.
This is a video course but I also write articles for each chapter for those who like to read
Check out both if you can, as they complement each other.
Havent seen anyone else reply to this so I hope I’m not breaking some rule by doing so but I just wanted to say thank you for posting this tutorial, as someone who is new both to blender and this website, I found this to be invaluable.
Hey ManInBlack!
Thanks for stopping by. I’ll be releasing more videos in this series soon(around next Monday). Just check back here or on the youtube channel.
Thanks for the great tutorial it’s very helpful.
I have a question: what kind of “Rig type” do I need to use to build the eye rig exactly as it is predefined in the Rigify Human Face.
Hi. There is no Rig Type to recreate the eye exactly, unfortunately.
One thing you could do is generate the full face, then delete all bones except for the eye. That will still require good knowledge of Rigify tho.
Also there are new Rig Types that may allow you to do that but I haven’t checked them out properly yet. I’ll make a video on that eventually
Its an absolutely fantastic playlist that really opened up Rigify for me in 2020. The free video’s are not limited in scope; you will “know” Rigify and be able to make efficient use of it if you watch them all.
The paid video’s are just the icing on the cake if you want to learn even more.
Its not just for people who are already advanced in rigging either. Todor starts you out with building a basic rig yourself so you have a point of reference and get a better sense what Rigify offers and why its features are so powerful. I would even be inclined to say its extra valuable to people new to rigging because it will give a great overview of the entire process.
There is a video on how to work with the Rigify rig itself once generated so you won’t be overwhelmed with its features if you’ve never worked with more advanced rigs.
There is even a great little series on weightpainting; an area of blender that most people find troublesome. Todor to bring it back to its basics and builds it up from there.
I’d say its a must watch for anyone remotely interested in rigging. He keeps adding video’s as well, recently adding one on how to export your rigify animations succesfully to the most popular game engines out there.
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