Blender Intermediate: Character Animation

Name: Blender Intermediate: Character Animation
Author: Jay Grewall

Learn parent-child relations and how they are used to control the motions of a 3D character, then prepare a 3D character for animation by creating armature

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Hello, and welcome to Knowledge City's course on Intermediate Blender 3D. My name is Jay, and today we'll be learning about armatures in Blender. But before we get into armatures, we first need to understand parent-child relationships. I have here on my screen a default cube, and I want to create a parent-child relationship with another object. So I'm going to create a default Taurus, and I'm going to place it right here. A parent object will dictate all the behaviors of its child object. In this case, I want this cube to be the parent of this Taurus. So whatever the cube does, the Taurus will do. In order to do that, I need to first select the child, and while holding the Shift key on my keyboard, I'm going to select its parent, which will be this cube. I'm now going to create the parent-child relationship, but when I do, keep an eye on what happens here in my scene collection panel. I'm going to go to Object, Parent, and select Object at the top of the fly-out menu. You'll see in my scene collection that the Taurus is now underneath the cube. When I move the cube, you will see the Taurus move with it. You will also see this black dotted line connecting the two objects. This indicates that there is a parent-child relationship between the two. Now when I move the parent cube, the Taurus will follow it wherever it goes. I can also modify the Taurus, and it will behave independently of its parent cube. To better illustrate the parent-child relationship, I've created this family of 3D characters. The one on the left will represent the parent, the one in the middle will represent the child, and the one on the end will represent the grandchild. I want this child here to follow its parent, so I'm going to select it first, select its parent second, right click, and go to Parent and Object. If you take a look at what happened in my scene collection panel, you will see that the child is now directly underneath the parent. I can confirm the parent-child relationship because I see the black dotted line which connects the two, and I'm now going to animate only the parent. The child can act independently, so I'm going to animate the child. Now when I play the animation, you will see the child following its parent, but acting independently. I now want to create a grandchild which will take on the properties of its parent, which was originally the child. So I'm going to select the grandchild first, then the child, right click, and go to Parent, Object, and you will now see in my scene collection that the grandchild is directly underneath the child. This is how the grandchild will follow the child, but the grandchild can also act independently. Now when I play the animation, you will see the grandchild acting independently, but following the child who is also acting independently following its parent. Armature in Blender is the skeletal framework that is used to build 3D characters and looks something like what I have on my screen. This is the armature that would be used for a human 3D character, and much like a skeleton, the armature in Blender is comprised of bones. If you take a look at my scene collection, you will see how all the bones are arranged and connected to one another. When these bones are constructed, they can be used to articulate the joints on the body. Let's build an armature starting with a bone. I'm going to go to Add, Armature, and you'll see this bone added to my screen. If you take a look at my scene collection, you will see I now have a new armature with the armature name and a bone attached to it. This bone is comprised of three parts. The bottom part right here is referred to the head, the top portion is referred to the tail, and the middle is referred to the body. If I want to add a new bone to this scene, I'm going to enter Edit Mode, select the tail of this current bone, and go to Armature, Extrude. A new bone has been added to the original bone. I can move this newly created bone, which is a child of the original bone. The tail of the first bone is connected to the head of the second bone, and I can very easily move them around like this. When a new bone is created, it is in its originally set position. Keep an eye on the values that are changing here in my Transform panel. This bone is now set and in its original position. Let's see how a bone can control a default cube. I'm going to select All and Delete. I'm going to add a default cube right here to my scene. I'm going to be in Wireframe mode with my X-Ray view on so you can see the bone inside of it. I'm now going to add a bone by going to add armature, and we now have the bone inside of it. I want the default cube to be controlled by this bone. I'm going to select the cube first, then the bone, and go to Object, Parent, Object. I can now see that there is a relationship here between the cube and the bone, and when I modify the bone, the cube will go with it. Thank you very much for watching.

Intermediate Provider : Jay Grewall 5 Lessons · 37m in English

Course Description

In these lessons, you’ll be introduced to parent-child relations in Blender and learn how they are used to control the movements of a 3D character. We’ll also introduce armatures—the virtual skeleton of your character—which is composed of “bones.” You’ll learn how to bend a default, high-polygon cylinder using a bone-based armature. Then we’ll go over weights, which define the area of influence of bones using a red-blue gradient. Finally, you’ll use your new understanding of armature and bones to animate a cylinder to behave like a worm.

But before any of that can happen, you’ll first have to prepare your detailed alien for animation using rigging—the process of creating, rotating, and positioning bones to construct the armature. We’ll show you how to rig a basic low-polygon character and then do the same with your alien creature, ensuring all its body parts are correctly articulated by the bones you assign. Then we’ll go over how to use Blender’s automatic rigging feature, Rigify, to prepare the creature for animation.

What You'll Learn

Use parent-child relationships to control a 3D model's movements in Blender
Define and adjust bones and armature—the virtual skeleton—of a 3D character
Bend a default high-polygon cylinder using a bone-based armature
Adjust weights to define the area of bone influence using a red-blue gradient
Rig low-polygon and alien characters by creating, rotating, and positioning bones
Prepare a 3D character for animation using Blender's automatic Rigify feature

Key Takeaways

Parent-child relations in Blender are used to control the movements of a 3D character.
An armature is the virtual skeleton of a character and is composed of bones.
Weights define the area of influence of bones using a red-blue gradient.
Rigging is the process of creating, rotating, and positioning bones to construct the armature.
Rigify is Blender's automatic rigging feature used to prepare a creature for animation.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does this course cover?

It introduces parent-child relations in Blender, armatures and bones, weights, rigging, and Blender's automatic Rigify feature, then applies them to animate a cylinder like a worm and rig a low-polygon character and an alien creature.

What is an armature in Blender?

An armature is the virtual skeleton of your character, composed of bones, and is used to control how the character bends and moves.

What is rigging in this course?

Rigging is the process of creating, rotating, and positioning bones to construct the armature, ensuring all of a character's body parts are correctly articulated by the bones you assign.

What skills will I gain from this course?

You will build skills in 3D animation, character animation, character rigging, object animation, computer animation, and Autodesk Animator.

What lessons are included?

The course includes Armature (Part 1), Armature (Part 2), Simple Rigging, and Riggify (Parts 1 and 2).