Preface

In this book, 3D Character Rigging in Blender, we will start with an unrigged character mesh and end with an effective tool for animators to bring life to an otherwise static mesh, going from the basics of Blender to advanced rigging techniques. Starting with a human figure and placing all the bones needed for complete and convincing motion, we will learn handy tips and cover the reasoning behind many of the actions taken to make you able to eventually make your own decisions in your work.

Who this book is for

Anyone with or without experience in Blender who wishes to learn the foundations of character rigging and produce reliable, clean rigs for animation will benefit from this book. No background in computer graphics is required but any experience in Blender will allow you to focus on the rigging and less on learning the software (which is also taught throughout this book). This book is primarily aimed at beginners.

What this book covers

Chapter 1, Introduction to Rigs and Terminologies, serves to introduce you to both Blender and the basics of rigs.

Chapter 2, Starting with Bones, sees us creating and editing bones while becoming familiar with Blender.

Chapter 3, Using Weighting Tools to Give Life to a Mesh, shows how we tie meshes to bones with weight painting.

Chapter 4, Beginning the Rigging Process, is where we start work on the centerpiece of the book by placing bones.

Chapter 5, Getting Started with Weight Painting, continues the trajectory from Chapter 4 with an examination of weight-painting meshes to bones.

Chapter 6, Using IK and Rig Controls, covers the automatic controls available in Blender.

Chapter 7, Getting Started with Shape Keys, offers a light introduction to shape keys, taking you from creating shape keys to using drivers.

Chapter 8, Beyond the Basics, offers a collection of more advanced techniques to provide paths for further improvement of your skills in more advanced applications.

To get the most out of this book

You will need to install Blender. The exercises in this book are composed with Blender 3.2 in mind. Blender is easily downloadable from the official Blender website at https://www.blender.org/ and is supported by all major platforms.

You will also need to download the resources provided: https://github.com/PacktPublishing/3D-Character-Rigging-in-Blender.

Software/hardware covered in the book	Operating system requirements
Blender	Windows, macOS, or Linux

Screenshots are included throughout this book, some of them with small UI elements. While all important areas are marked and annotated, reading a digital copy to zoom in on the images might help.

Download the example code files

You can download the example files for this book from GitHub at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/3D-Character-Rigging-in-Blender.

If there’s an update to the resources provided, it will be updated in the GitHub repository.

We also have other bundles from our rich catalog of books and videos available at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/. Check them out!

Conventions used

There are several text conventions used throughout this book.

Highlighted text: Indicates physical keys you should press in the written order, with the mouse in the correct area (shortcut keys are contextual to cursor location).

Here is an example: “They will also still be parented to the arm, which will cause a dependency loop, so make sure you clear the parent with Alt + P .”

Bold: Indicates a new term, an important word, or words that you see onscreen. For instance, words in menus or dialog boxes appear in bold. Here is an example: “To add a new shape key, navigate to Object data properties | Shape keys and click the Plus button.” In this example, each successive action is a menu selection that leads to the next one.

Tips or important notes

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Get in touch

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