Bendy bones

Blender has two types of bones: normal and bendy. In this book you have been using normal bones because there has been no need to use anything else. Bendy bones are great for making whacky and wild rigs, most typically found in lighthearted animated films where the characters do not conform to the logic of real life.

Figure 8.5 shows everything needed to turn a bone into a bendy bone; add some IK to the end handle and it’s simple!

Figure 8.5 – Full bendy bone setup

All the information you need to replicate each example is in these figures, so should you ever need to come back for ideas, you can take a quick look.

Figure 8.6 – Full bendy bone setup

A control rig for a bendy bone can consist of a Stretch To constraint with a disconnected target. Figure 8.6 shows a simple setup.

There’s also a Spine IK constraint; it’s pretty similar to the other IK constraints you have used...