Your videos are so good, man. I have watched so many videos where people give you a false sense of confidence in them knowing what they are doing, but you ACTUALLY EXPLAIN WHY. And no one else does that really. That pole vector CORRECT way proves your expertise right there. That -90/90 hack always made me go "hmmm." Anyways thank you thank you for your videos. Even your thumbnails are dope!
Thank you so much! I'm glad you are finding them useful! Yeah there are tons of things like this in Blender that are hidden just below the surface of the program!
Dude this is so amazing for years I been looking at tutorials where the guy would just use the pole angle rotation on the IK thank you for doing it the proper way and showing us :)
I cant stop commenting......these tutorial series is the best form of explaining the basics of something, are you not by any chance a teacher of some sort (outside of youtube)?
First I made a robotic spider model I thought I will animate, thinking that rigging such a simple thing would not be so hard and I don't need to think ahead. Now 2 days later, I am all in learning from the basics to advanced level of rigging, and deleting my robotic spider legs, because they cant be used for rigging. Learning rabbit hole is real. I am glad that I found your channel by scouring the depths of CZcams tutorials!
You have a very soothing voice. Even though I am doing very simple rig atm, listening to your in-depth explanation is a true pleasure. Thanks, you are doing a fantastic job.
I love it that you include the blend files, It helps immensely for people like me, who need to do it hands on, but need the same visual cues as the tutorial has, so i don't need to make a basic similarly looking object first.
For sure - here is my series that starts from the beginning and works through more advanced videos: czcams.com/play/PLbjn7kaP877uiJHEY3u3dCZiyhALOmzhS.html
This has been such a great resource. Thanks so much for the thorough and simple to follow tutorial. Seriously so much fun to take these principles and workflow and apply it to my own projects.
Very god vid mate. It is so confusing, the thing moves as one in object mode, but then in bits in pose mode and edit mode does a third act. Need to wrap my head around it.
Glad you liked it! Try playing around with small assets as well, and check out my Full Robot Rigging series, I cover some of the same topics in a bit more detail. tinyurl.com/yysw6fzy
@@LevelPixelLevel yeah i did, in fact i am watching it second time now, i am actually trying to rig my own mech, but i ran into an issue i got stuck on since yesterday and have no idea how to solve it. if you care giving me a hint into right direction i could drop you a giff that shows that i am after. everything is peachy, except for that one part that i have no bloody clue how to rig. Actually, see if you can access this facebook.com/ponteryuurui/videos/2464450486986863/ What i want to achieve there, is for that top of the foot guard to move when the front toe goes up, but at the same time, i need the guard to move with the foot core as well. someone suggested keys, which could be an idea. I started to learn rigging 2 days ago, so this is still a pretty tricky head scratcher for me.
For something like this I would add a control onto the guard, and then have a driver that takes two variables, one from the main foot rotation, and one from the toe. I'll see if I can add something like this to my drivers master class series! Epic foot rig and model by the way!
@@LevelPixelLevel cheers mate, i actually figured that puzzle out, but differently, so i might go ahead and try your solution, i must say that rigging thing is aserious mind bender. many thanks for gettign back to me! Master class, when, where? My mind is ready! Yes, that would be great, complex mechanics and relations between them, would be great to learn how all those rigging magical options in blender work together.
THANK YOU SO MUCH! you gave me a very needed solution to my problem that was driving me crazy oh my god, it was terrible (I was literally rigging a desk lamp)
OH MAN. Changing the Roll to fix the 90 degree Pole Target issue is insane. I've watched a LOT of tutorials and I don't think I've ever seen this online. I've just been slapping band-aids on broken bones, apparently! I hope you're writing a massive tome and cultivating a purchasable 30+ hour tutorial package alongside these youtube clips. I have to ask: why/how would putting a driver on the pole angle itself help in conjunction with being able to move the pole target? Is it like an optional override?
Thanks! Glad you liked it. I've been slowly building a course, these tutorials are all sort of an introduction so that later I can get to some really interesting techniques. Yes, the driver on the pole angle can be used as an override. If an entire animation is complete, but the animator just wants to tweak the elbow a bit, they may want to use a secondary dial rather than mess with the curves on their graph.
if it's possible, how to rig a chain like object to a character? Like a bullet belt that is worn by character and that belt has it's own bones for physics.
I've done something like this is the past, but I usually use a second rig. This second rig is attached to a cloth mesh, and that cloth mesh is parented to the main rig. It is a bit of a process in Blender, but it is possible. I'll add it to my list as a future video to make. Great suggestion!
Hi, all your videos about mechanical rigging are great and easy to follow. thanks a lot. where did you get your robotik-motor-piston sounds(they are so realistic)?
You are the best! I came across your channel yesterday and I have to say, that you should really have more than 1,4k views! Just can I have a question? How would you approach rigging a coat or a cloak for games? For example the coat's sleeves and chest area are using character's bones, but what to do with the "back hanging cloth"? Would you suggest to use 2 armatures for one mesh? One for chest and sleeves and one for the back or to have bones in character rig prepared for the cloak even if the character is not using it? I hope it's understandable how I wrote it :)
Thank you! Glad you liked the video :) For a coat on a character in a game, you can do a couple of things. 1) Try to keep everything as one rig, and add extra bones for the end of the coat, parent these bones to the spine or the hip bone. Weight paint these extra bones to the coat bottom and give them a couple of fk controls. 2) You can use two armatures if you need to, just ensure the second armature is parented to the first. Although I would avoid this if possible as it may cause complications in a game engine. 3) Simulate the cloth and bake out the action (this might even be achievable in Unity or Unreal) If you are looking for an interesting way to animate the end of the coat be sure to check out the Jiggle Armature Add: czcams.com/video/Irv5P7PEc1k/video.html I'm not 100% sure if this works with 2.8 yet but is a great addon for simple simulations that you can bake down to the armature to use in a game engine. Once I have a bit more time I'll try to create a tutorial reviewing the first option. Best of luck with your rig!
@@LevelPixelLevel Oh, thank you for your answer, it was really helpful! :) And ye, that jiggle addon works with 2.8 without any problems :) Keep it up bro!
Oh wow, I'm transitioning from Cinema 4D and this is a great helper. I still need to work on a few exercises more but I feel it's still quite a pain of micromanaging compared to C4D, specially the object/pose distinction and the fact you can't use nulls as restraints for individual bones (or at least I did not find the way yet)
Thank you! Yeah, Blender takes a while to get used to. I cam from Maya where a null object had for more importance. Everything in Blender is contained with in the single rig object. At first I found this limiting, but now I prefer it. You can constraint bones to nulls in Blender if you want, but in the long run it is far better to keep things contained within the armature object.
I like you don't have to use bones to setup an IK chain for a mechanical rig in C4D (and other software). It's kinda goofy having to use bones in Blender when you're not deforming a mesh (not to mention unnecessarily messy).
@@chosenideahandle Agreed, even in Maya the systems are a little cleaner. Although I like having everything in Blender as one object for organization - this also causes a lot of issues with dependencies.
Wonderful tutorial. Thank you. One question. Is it possible somehow to have the main bone in the ik chain? I want to control the main bone rotation with the arm controller.
Hey! Glad you liked it! The IK should work the same if you are using the XZY or the Quaternion default. But most animators will want to work in XZY. I talk most about this here: czcams.com/video/eUTbey47N5I/video.html
This made me scratch my head also. Would the IK pole normally want to use the -Y axis if using XYZ or Quarternion? Or is it always the X axis it expects irrespective of the space?
I have a question. I want to fix the axis on the top. So when i grap the hand and move it outside X it rotates with it. You mention it, but sadly you just Lock the movment of the hand. How can i lock movment of parts inside of a Bonegroup, what interacts in the Relation while i grap the hand? This would make the animation much mor easy
Amazing tutorial! Thank you! A few questions that were unclear: Why does it want the X axis specifically to point to the pole vector? What do you mean by "nice roll" through the bones when you chose to roll the IK bone?
For nice roll I mean a roll that does not change from pose mode to edit mode (when the rig is in the default location). And, I am not sure when the X looks at the pole target. This seems like something that the user should have control over, like in the lock track constraint and the track to constraint.
Really well explained, thank you so much! Any chance to block the distance between the hand and the last part of the arm? During the animation tests I wanted to prevent the parts from accidentally separating on my models. Thanks in advance
Thanks! Yes this is possible, but you need a second bone chain of connected bones with copy transforms to the main IK chain. Because they are connected bones as you pull the hand control away from the arm the hand pieces will stay connected.
@@LevelPixelLevel many thanks, I tried with a "limit distance" constrain between the hand and the last bone of the arm and it works but your solution is great!
Hello! Thanks for the cool lesson) However, I can’t deal with one point. When I move pole_vector, ik_bone 1 and 2 do not move, but rotate around their own axis. What can be wrong?
This might be a parenting issue. Check out what is parented in your file and compare this to the example file. Next, make sure that the bone chain length on the IK constraint is set to 2.
@@LevelPixelLevel , Thanks for the quick response) I did everything step by step after you) Still now I will compare the files and maybe I'll figure out what's the matter)
Hmm it is working for me in the new release. try this in a clean file and see if it works. I should let you snap right to the controller. I tested this out in 2.8 and everything worked for me. Let me know if you are still having issues.
It's not working for me. When I press ctrl P the "keep ofset" doesn't show up, the tab where "inverse kinetcs" should show up it's not in there! Looks even like my blender is not actualy 2.8! Even if it is!
This should work in Blender 2.79 or Blender 2.8 check out the example files. Ctrl P is only for parenting and will not show inverse kinematics, this will show up in the constraint panel.
this tutorial was very nice and easy. but i have a confusion, why we parented the ik control bone to base bone instead of just parenting it to the ik bone2 ?
Try to make 3 connected bones, put an ik constraint to middle one and set the third as a control. You'll see that by NOT unparenting this third bone you won't be able to control rig at all - it would create circular dependency. Why parent it to the base bone and not leave it free though? It's easier to use base rotation to determine arm's position, if you don't do that you'll have to adjust control bone position constantly.
Hi again :). I tried this method, it helps and bone doesn't flip but it is still shifting. I am trying to create the pv target bone in such a way that it exists in xz plane and is oriented towards. Untill now, I haven't found a way to extrude the bone along the local axis of the bone. Any idea how can I do it?
Hi, as I mentioned, I was trying to replicate your method and was still getting a little bit of displacement of the IK joints. I searched more found this. It is the same method where I don't have to extrude bones from elbow but I can just duplicate of upper arm as pole target which will autometically be in the xz plane. I tried it and it gives flawless result as yours X). Here is the link : cgfromspace.blogspot.com/2013/11/blender-quick-tip-how-set-up-ik-pole.html
When you hit e to extrude, hit x, or y to constrain to an axis, then it should follow along. Check out the demo files to confirm the bone locations are in the correct spot in edit mode as well.
@@LevelPixelLevel Thanks for the reply. Sorry, I meant normal axis. Extruding bones works in local and global mode. But I find it hard to extrude it along normal axis. However, I am getting flaw less result by using upper arm dupliacte as pole vector. No shifting happened. :)
what lighting set up and sample/rendering settings. I can never get my build to look as clean as yours, plus did you smooth your shapes or just subdivide surfaces?
I usually use a low lighting sample with fog. And I only use the principle shaders, I rarely use textures. I might smooth a cylinder shape, but other than that I keep everything flat (with no subdivisions). The only thing I might add is a bevel modifier just to get a bit of an edge. You can actually check out my full file here: gumroad.com/l/eWKzb Let me know what you think.
Can't Shift+Select in pose mode like you show at 7:56 . Would you know what I might be doing wrong? Never mind, didn't do all the bone extrusions in Edit Mode.
Thanks.. for the video. I was looking for the solution like maya where I don´t have to fix it manually and this thing really helps. I still have concern regarding the different between the rotation of the rest of the bones and bones of the arms/legs. As rotation of arm-leg axis has to be rolled according to pole vector to avoid flipping, would you recommned to make all other bones have same roll or rotation axis. Again... thank you :)
Yeah, try to keep all of you bone layers with the same roll, this will save tons of time when you are adding constraints between the control and the deform bones.
Hi, I know that it’s been a while since you made this video, but I’m hoping that you can help me with an issue that I’m having. I am actually trying to rig a robotic arm for a engineering project, but the arm was made in a engineering program (CAD file). When I try importing it to blender It doesn’t recognize the assembly, it only appears to recognize it as a single object. I tried to make a rig several times, but it doesn’t want to move. My question is, is there a way to make it recognize all the parts? If not, would that mean that I have to make another assembly in blender?
Go into edit mode, select all the mesh, then press "p" and click by loose parts. Im trying to set up a rig for a Fanuc robot right now and cant figure it out
Hi! Yes, you can keep the IK chain visible. Keep the later on and under the armature display setting you can turn on show in front. Here is that setting: tinyurl.com/yyafmvvn
When I press CTRL + P, I don't get an option to "Keep Offset". Only "Connected" and that doesn't do anything, so I basically had to give up on this tutorial because I got stuck there
Thank you for sharing your knowledge! ---- One thing to notice, and that is traversal to "ALL" of Rigging, IK and FK tutorials, is that "you" Always say ALL of the Commands to Rotate, Move, Extrude, Tab to enter, Tab to leave, etc....That's very annoying, it distracts from the important info. Someone who search for animation, at least should know how to rotate an object and extrude an edge or something. Thank you again!
Yes, this is an introduction tutorial, and I tend to use hotkeys a lot so I call them out. In future videos, where I cover more advanced topics, I'll be focusing on the theory, or the technique and less on the actions involved to get to that step.
Great tutorial but in the future can you just say which tool you're using as well as telling us the hotkeys, so that we can find it in the menus as well
Yes, it is not attached (parented) when I duplicate it. At 08:00 I connect (parent) all the bones again after I've placed them all. I duplicated the root bone as it maintains the Euler Rotation mode settings. Compared to making a new bone that will be in Quaternion.
For the IK bones I extruded the second IK bone (making a parent) All IK needs to work is 2 bones and a target bone. I talk about IK a bit more here: www.levelpixellevel.com/machinemaking/machine-making-episode-6-full-robot And here is a very simple IK rig: gum.co/zKcld
Hey i just switched from maya to blender, can we make conroller for the join? Because in maya we animate character through the controller not the actual bones, and need to freeze transform the controller. So we can reset to the default position when needed. I hope someone had any ideas for this
In Blender, you use the joints (bones) to make the deform bones and the controllers. The joints themselves have a custom pivot that is set in edit mode. Then in pose mode, these can be set back to zero using alt-g (location) alt-s (scale) and alt-r (rotation). Try building some simple rigs using the joints as the controller shapes. czcams.com/video/SfSIz12WjSI/video.html Also, be sure to check out the rigify rigs, these will be extremely helpful to see how the architecture of rigs can be created in Blender. czcams.com/video/dYiAd_08-0k/video.html While this tutorial is for Blender 2.78, the main structures have not changed that much.
Maybe, make sure the pole vector bone is not parented to the IK bones themselves, this will cause issues. Also, make sure your Chain Length is set up correctly. This is found on the IK constraint and at 9:40
Thank you so much for these tuts! Helped me out alot. Yet of course I have to do things differently. I am rigging the ATAT from Star Wars. Basically the same as this arm except the shoulder needs to bob up and down, hence the 2nd pole(do i need?). You can see I have my roll correct to point at the knee_pole_vector by rolling it 90 deg since in front. but it then goes off to the side. I reset the roll back to 0deg then locked the x axis and its fine except its now in opposite direction from pole. I can move the pole to other side of the leg and it works but Im thinking this would be wrong. This is my main issue let alone how the heck do I rig the shoulder so it can move up and down as well. adding 1+ on chain length pops the whole thing 90deg. so I dunno. Hopefully link to image works drive.google.com/open?id=15wOUVsAiHqtaneZ8C-eN3MwcdJlTXyGV
Oh ya forgot to say I know it needs that slight bend to know which way to bend but the geo is straight and that bend would make the axis bend off kilter right?
@@theartoframos Okay I see what you mean for the should here, I would actually have the leg work like a piston - meaning have the hip go right up to the top, then add an extra bone at the top of the leg to act as a piston: www.levelpixellevel.com/uploads/1/1/7/8/117873610/atat_orig.jpg For the slight bend, I would actually make the default shape a little bent - now this means like .5 degree rotation in the direction of your choice. Maybe one day I'll do a series on how to rig an ATAT, this looks like a really fun model to rig!
@@LevelPixelLevel WOW! Thank you so much for responding. I was going out of my mind because so much stuff out there but nothing was helping. Gonna try you other tutorial; it has a piston right. Thanks again so excited!
@@LevelPixelLevel Ok, so I think I got it.. sort of. Moved the geometry AND the respective bones .5deg towards the pole vector then rerigged, just to have the slight bend at the knee. Used "Blender" CZcams fundamental series to make the IK control on top the foot control. Right at the end they did what you said not to; change the pole angle. Instead I changed the roll 90deg so that X points towards the Pole. But I have this funky arbitrary angle happening. Its not any angle I can define to compensate with roll. All I did here is move the "Foot_IK_Ctrl" up on the Z. So I have no Idea whats going on. BUT Good news I got the shoulder going. After I made the leg IK chain I then had a separate shoulder bone I simply parented to the thigh bone a voila. I have to control it separately but that is doable and I expected that. But I still CANT animate this with a funky knee pole vector. What should I do? Here's a link to the image: drive.google.com/file/d/1Msop2Fqo4WWNlMvOyizj2V3BI3WZfMVh/view?usp=sharing
@@LevelPixelLevel OK this time I SUPER figured it out. So I guess initially to counter the rotation so as to NOT have a rotation leg straight at the knee I guess I got confused and DID straighten it or something. I reapplied the rig over and over and ever increasing angles approaching 180deg(straight). I found that it works all the way up to 179.9 degrees. So getting math nerdy; if the foot is directly below the hip or shoulder in this case you can then pop out the leg .05 deg and then it turns back another .05 deg to make a 179.9 deg separation between the leg parts. BUT it weirdly only moves after moving the IK control a bit. So to be on the safe side it actually needs to be 179.8degress or .1deg on shoulder and -.1 at knee. So basically like you said it can be damn close to straight just not exactly.
Check out this file, it has a very simple IK structure in it. gumroad.com/l/zKcld This might be a good place to start. Also, even though this is video is 2.78 it is a great place to start as well: czcams.com/video/0U3NjTvwdWI/video.html
Some folks will get lost in the vector language :D so it requires some math/physics lessons on their part to truly understand. Vectors are no joke! HAHA oh and let's not get into that Geometry class discussion. Oh did they do their homework LOL, I'm sure many kids in school just sleep on those important math courses. Not realizing that it will truly come in handy later on in life after maybe locating 3D software tools like Blender online.
@@virtual_intel yeah i know that, there s a lot of math. In school math be very difficult to me :(. But im no be sad, i think that some day i will understand the IK rig).
Part 2 has been published: czcams.com/video/BA3vgqCADiY/video.html
Man! You're thorough, calm, and keeping it super simple without making me feel stupid. Really good work!
Your videos are so good, man. I have watched so many videos where people give you a false sense of confidence in them knowing what they are doing, but you ACTUALLY EXPLAIN WHY. And no one else does that really. That pole vector CORRECT way proves your expertise right there. That -90/90 hack always made me go "hmmm." Anyways thank you thank you for your videos. Even your thumbnails are dope!
Thank you so much! I'm glad you are finding them useful! Yeah there are tons of things like this in Blender that are hidden just below the surface of the program!
This is the best rigging tutorial I've encountered so far, keep up good work mate!
Thank you!
Dude this is so amazing for years I been looking at tutorials where the guy would just use the pole angle rotation on the IK thank you for doing it the proper way and showing us :)
Right on, glad you liked it!
I cant stop commenting......these tutorial series is the best form of explaining the basics of something, are you not by any chance a teacher of some sort (outside of youtube)?
First I made a robotic spider model I thought I will animate, thinking that rigging such a simple thing would not be so hard and I don't need to think ahead. Now 2 days later, I am all in learning from the basics to advanced level of rigging, and deleting my robotic spider legs, because they cant be used for rigging. Learning rabbit hole is real. I am glad that I found your channel by scouring the depths of CZcams tutorials!
Level Pixel, you're a really nice instructor!
Thanks for the tricks!
Thank you! Glad you liked it :)
Thank you very much . Finally I got to a video which teaches about rigging properly .
You have a very soothing voice. Even though I am doing very simple rig atm, listening to your in-depth explanation is a true pleasure. Thanks, you are doing a fantastic job.
Thank you! Glad you liked it! I'll be making some shorter videos in the future where I cover certain parts of IK in more detail!
Thank you! Finally, a quality tutorial. I've been searching all over youtube for this.
thank you for these valuable tutorial...there aren't many good rigging tutorials for blender and yours is among the best :)
Thank you! Glad you liked it. More to come in the future!
I love it that you include the blend files, It helps immensely for people like me, who need to do it hands on, but need the same visual cues as the tutorial has, so i don't need to make a basic similarly looking object first.
Thank you SO much for explaining why the pole angle should be 0 and how to fix the bone roll. Your videos are super helpful!
Wow! Thanks for the awesome tip on minute 14:00 about rolling the bone
Thanks, I was rigging for about a year before I found this out.
@@LevelPixelLevel if we all get a dime for digging into Blender....
Great Tutorial. Thanks. Can you please share anything explaining about different terminology used in the rigging to understand as a beginner.
For sure - here is my series that starts from the beginning and works through more advanced videos: czcams.com/play/PLbjn7kaP877uiJHEY3u3dCZiyhALOmzhS.html
This has been such a great resource. Thanks so much for the thorough and simple to follow tutorial. Seriously so much fun to take these principles and workflow and apply it to my own projects.
Very god vid mate. It is so confusing, the thing moves as one in object mode, but then in bits in pose mode and edit mode does a third act. Need to wrap my head around it.
Glad you liked it! Try playing around with small assets as well, and check out my Full Robot Rigging series, I cover some of the same topics in a bit more detail. tinyurl.com/yysw6fzy
@@LevelPixelLevel yeah i did, in fact i am watching it second time now, i am actually trying to rig my own mech, but i ran into an issue i got stuck on since yesterday and have no idea how to solve it. if you care giving me a hint into right direction i could drop you a giff that shows that i am after. everything is peachy, except for that one part that i have no bloody clue how to rig. Actually, see if you can access this facebook.com/ponteryuurui/videos/2464450486986863/ What i want to achieve there, is for that top of the foot guard to move when the front toe goes up, but at the same time, i need the guard to move with the foot core as well. someone suggested keys, which could be an idea. I started to learn rigging 2 days ago, so this is still a pretty tricky head scratcher for me.
For something like this I would add a control onto the guard, and then have a driver that takes two variables, one from the main foot rotation, and one from the toe.
I'll see if I can add something like this to my drivers master class series!
Epic foot rig and model by the way!
@@LevelPixelLevel cheers mate, i actually figured that puzzle out, but differently, so i might go ahead and try your solution, i must say that rigging thing is aserious mind bender. many thanks for gettign back to me! Master class, when, where? My mind is ready! Yes, that would be great, complex mechanics and relations between them, would be great to learn how all those rigging magical options in blender work together.
Dude I tried giving this video a like twice but it didn't work so here you go👍👍
For anyone viewing this using blender v2.82 the "CTRL+SHIFT+C" didn't work for me but "SHIFT+i" worked
THANK YOU SO MUCH! you gave me a very needed solution to my problem that was driving me crazy oh my god, it was terrible (I was literally rigging a desk lamp)
Glad it helped :) and I know the feeling
OH MAN. Changing the Roll to fix the 90 degree Pole Target issue is insane. I've watched a LOT of tutorials and I don't think I've ever seen this online. I've just been slapping band-aids on broken bones, apparently! I hope you're writing a massive tome and cultivating a purchasable 30+ hour tutorial package alongside these youtube clips. I have to ask: why/how would putting a driver on the pole angle itself help in conjunction with being able to move the pole target? Is it like an optional override?
Thanks! Glad you liked it. I've been slowly building a course, these tutorials are all sort of an introduction so that later I can get to some really interesting techniques.
Yes, the driver on the pole angle can be used as an override. If an entire animation is complete, but the animator just wants to tweak the elbow a bit, they may want to use a secondary dial rather than mess with the curves on their graph.
Thanks for great tutorials!
God damn this tutorial is dope. Subscribed!
Very helpful! I have always wondered how the pole angle/vector worked with bone rolls and just realizing it was the X axis all along!
Very useful. Thanks.
Tnank you very much
Nice tutorial
Great stuff thanks XD
Thank you
Amazing tutorial! Tnank you very much!
Great tutorial! Thanks.
Glad you liked it! Part 2 coming soon!
Many thanks!
Thanks for the tutorial! Very helpful information
Glad you found it helpful!
Dope rigging tutorial, takes me back to my calculus course days in college :) and even high school math. I'll never forget how fun that was.
Right on! Glad you are enjoying them!
thank you! Subbed
if it's possible, how to rig a chain like object to a character? Like a bullet belt that is worn by character and that belt has it's own bones for physics.
I've done something like this is the past, but I usually use a second rig. This second rig is attached to a cloth mesh, and that cloth mesh is parented to the main rig. It is a bit of a process in Blender, but it is possible. I'll add it to my list as a future video to make.
Great suggestion!
Hi, all your videos about mechanical rigging are great and easy to follow. thanks a lot.
where did you get your robotik-motor-piston sounds(they are so realistic)?
I grabbed them from freesound.org/ and messed with the speed and frequency to adjust them to the animation.
@jk b For this I just used Premiere, there are some tools to just the frequency, tone, and length of the audio.
You are the best! I came across your channel yesterday and I have to say, that you should really have more than 1,4k views! Just can I have a question? How would you approach rigging a coat or a cloak for games? For example the coat's sleeves and chest area are using character's bones, but what to do with the "back hanging cloth"? Would you suggest to use 2 armatures for one mesh? One for chest and sleeves and one for the back or to have bones in character rig prepared for the cloak even if the character is not using it? I hope it's understandable how I wrote it :)
Thank you! Glad you liked the video :)
For a coat on a character in a game, you can do a couple of things.
1) Try to keep everything as one rig, and add extra bones for the end of the coat, parent these bones to the spine or the hip bone. Weight paint these extra bones to the coat bottom and give them a couple of fk controls.
2) You can use two armatures if you need to, just ensure the second armature is parented to the first. Although I would avoid this if possible as it may cause complications in a game engine.
3) Simulate the cloth and bake out the action (this might even be achievable in Unity or Unreal)
If you are looking for an interesting way to animate the end of the coat be sure to check out the Jiggle Armature Add: czcams.com/video/Irv5P7PEc1k/video.html
I'm not 100% sure if this works with 2.8 yet but is a great addon for simple simulations that you can bake down to the armature to use in a game engine.
Once I have a bit more time I'll try to create a tutorial reviewing the first option. Best of luck with your rig!
@@LevelPixelLevel Oh, thank you for your answer, it was really helpful! :) And ye, that jiggle addon works with 2.8 without any problems :) Keep it up bro!
damn thanks, you saved my day!
Pure love!
Thank you for this!! It is super helpful!!
Thank you! Glad you found it helpful!
Awesome, thanks!
it's amazing.
Oh wow, I'm transitioning from Cinema 4D and this is a great helper.
I still need to work on a few exercises more but I feel it's still quite a pain of micromanaging compared to C4D, specially the object/pose distinction and the fact you can't use nulls as restraints for individual bones (or at least I did not find the way yet)
Thank you! Yeah, Blender takes a while to get used to. I cam from Maya where a null object had for more importance. Everything in Blender is contained with in the single rig object. At first I found this limiting, but now I prefer it. You can constraint bones to nulls in Blender if you want, but in the long run it is far better to keep things contained within the armature object.
I like you don't have to use bones to setup an IK chain for a mechanical rig in C4D (and other software). It's kinda goofy having to use bones in Blender when you're not deforming a mesh (not to mention unnecessarily messy).
@@chosenideahandle Agreed, even in Maya the systems are a little cleaner. Although I like having everything in Blender as one object for organization - this also causes a lot of issues with dependencies.
Wonderful tutorial. Thank you. One question. Is it possible somehow to have the main bone in the ik chain? I want to control the main bone rotation with the arm controller.
Check out my video here: czcams.com/video/suP14lYWpN8/video.html
This might point you in the right direction.
8:52 for ik
Great tutorial, answered a lot of questions I had.Can you quickly explain why Euler XZY is better than the default? Does it work better with IK?
Hey! Glad you liked it! The IK should work the same if you are using the XZY or the Quaternion default. But most animators will want to work in XZY. I talk most about this here:
czcams.com/video/eUTbey47N5I/video.html
@@LevelPixelLevel Thanks so much. I started watching your animation playlist. I'm learning a lot - cheers!
This made me scratch my head also. Would the IK pole normally want to use the -Y axis if using XYZ or Quarternion? Or is it always the X axis it expects irrespective of the space?
I have a question. I want to fix the axis on the top. So when i grap the hand and move it outside X it rotates with it. You mention it, but sadly you just Lock the movment of the hand. How can i lock movment of parts inside of a Bonegroup, what interacts in the Relation while i grap the hand? This would make the animation much mor easy
Will you do a Inverse Kinematics Spine Rig Tutorial? Are you able ?
hmm maybe, let me see what I can do. Although this one might be far down the stack.
Amazing tutorial! Thank you! A few questions that were unclear: Why does it want the X axis specifically to point to the pole vector? What do you mean by "nice roll" through the bones when you chose to roll the IK bone?
For nice roll I mean a roll that does not change from pose mode to edit mode (when the rig is in the default location). And, I am not sure when the X looks at the pole target. This seems like something that the user should have control over, like in the lock track constraint and the track to constraint.
Really well explained, thank you so much! Any chance to block the distance between the hand and the last part of the arm? During the animation tests I wanted to prevent the parts from accidentally separating on my models. Thanks in advance
Thanks! Yes this is possible, but you need a second bone chain of connected bones with copy transforms to the main IK chain. Because they are connected bones as you pull the hand control away from the arm the hand pieces will stay connected.
@@LevelPixelLevel many thanks, I tried with a "limit distance" constrain between the hand and the last bone of the arm and it works but your solution is great!
Hello! Thanks for the cool lesson) However, I can’t deal with one point. When I move pole_vector, ik_bone 1 and 2 do not move, but rotate around their own axis. What can be wrong?
This might be a parenting issue. Check out what is parented in your file and compare this to the example file. Next, make sure that the bone chain length on the IK constraint is set to 2.
@@LevelPixelLevel , Thanks for the quick response)
I did everything step by step after you) Still now I will compare the files and maybe I'll figure out what's the matter)
at 7:08: Snapping on or off doesn't make any difference here. The bone won't snap when moved. Did they break that with the final release?
Hmm it is working for me in the new release. try this in a clean file and see if it works. I should let you snap right to the controller. I tested this out in 2.8 and everything worked for me.
Let me know if you are still having issues.
same, having issues in 3.2. ever figure it out?
It's not working for me. When I press ctrl P the "keep ofset" doesn't show up, the tab where "inverse kinetcs" should show up it's not in there! Looks even like my blender is not actualy 2.8! Even if it is!
This should work in Blender 2.79 or Blender 2.8 check out the example files. Ctrl P is only for parenting and will not show inverse kinematics, this will show up in the constraint panel.
this tutorial was very nice and easy. but i have a confusion, why we parented the ik control bone to base bone instead of just parenting it to the ik bone2 ?
Try to make 3 connected bones, put an ik constraint to middle one and set the third as a control. You'll see that by NOT unparenting this third bone you won't be able to control rig at all - it would create circular dependency. Why parent it to the base bone and not leave it free though? It's easier to use base rotation to determine arm's position, if you don't do that you'll have to adjust control bone position constantly.
@@dmigul thank you☺️☺️
Hi again :). I tried this method, it helps and bone doesn't flip but it is still shifting. I am trying to create the pv target bone in such a way that it exists in xz plane and is oriented towards. Untill now, I haven't found a way to extrude the bone along the local axis of the bone. Any idea how can I do it?
Hi, as I mentioned, I was trying to replicate your method and was still getting a little bit of displacement of the IK joints. I searched more found this. It is the same method where I don't have to extrude bones from elbow but I can just duplicate of upper arm as pole target which will autometically be in the xz plane. I tried it and it gives flawless result as yours X). Here is the link :
cgfromspace.blogspot.com/2013/11/blender-quick-tip-how-set-up-ik-pole.html
When you hit e to extrude, hit x, or y to constrain to an axis, then it should follow along. Check out the demo files to confirm the bone locations are in the correct spot in edit mode as well.
@@LevelPixelLevel Thanks for the reply. Sorry, I meant normal axis. Extruding bones works in local and global mode. But I find it hard to extrude it along normal axis. However, I am getting flaw less result by using upper arm dupliacte as pole vector. No shifting happened. :)
@@morin6661 ahh that makes sense actually, and glad your duplication method worked out!
@@LevelPixelLevel I would not say its mine :). Thanks to you and the guy who posted it online :D.
what lighting set up and sample/rendering settings. I can never get my build to look as clean as yours, plus did you smooth your shapes or just subdivide surfaces?
I usually use a low lighting sample with fog. And I only use the principle shaders, I rarely use textures. I might smooth a cylinder shape, but other than that I keep everything flat (with no subdivisions). The only thing I might add is a bevel modifier just to get a bit of an edge.
You can actually check out my full file here: gumroad.com/l/eWKzb
Let me know what you think.
@@LevelPixelLevel oh right. I might try that I'm trying to make a portal style mechanical arm model.
Can't Shift+Select in pose mode like you show at 7:56 . Would you know what I might be doing wrong?
Never mind, didn't do all the bone extrusions in Edit Mode.
Thanks.. for the video. I was looking for the solution like maya where I don´t have to fix it manually and this thing really helps. I still have concern regarding the different between the rotation of the rest of the bones and bones of the arms/legs. As rotation of arm-leg axis has to be rolled according to pole vector to avoid flipping, would you recommned to make all other bones have same roll or rotation axis. Again... thank you :)
Yeah, try to keep all of you bone layers with the same roll, this will save tons of time when you are adding constraints between the control and the deform bones.
Hi, I know that it’s been a while since you made this video, but I’m hoping that you can help me with an issue that I’m having. I am actually trying to rig a robotic arm for a engineering project, but the arm was made in a engineering program (CAD file). When I try importing it to blender It doesn’t recognize the assembly, it only appears to recognize it as a single object. I tried to make a rig several times, but it doesn’t want to move. My question is, is there a way to make it recognize all the parts? If not, would that mean that I have to make another assembly in blender?
Go into edit mode, select all the mesh, then press "p" and click by loose parts.
Im trying to set up a rig for a Fanuc robot right now and cant figure it out
Josh Hill Thank you! It worked! 🙌 It recognized every piece as a separate object.
Is it possible to keep the IK chain visible?
Hi! Yes, you can keep the IK chain visible. Keep the later on and under the armature display setting you can turn on show in front.
Here is that setting: tinyurl.com/yyafmvvn
When I press CTRL + P, I don't get an option to "Keep Offset". Only "Connected" and that doesn't do anything, so I basically had to give up on this tutorial because I got stuck there
If you do not see the keep offset option this means the bones are already parented together and you can move onto the next step.
me too...
Thank you for sharing your knowledge!
----
One thing to notice, and that is traversal to "ALL" of Rigging, IK and FK tutorials, is that "you" Always say ALL of the Commands to Rotate, Move, Extrude, Tab to enter, Tab to leave, etc....That's very annoying, it distracts from the important info. Someone who search for animation, at least should know how to rotate an object and extrude an edge or something.
Thank you again!
Yes, this is an introduction tutorial, and I tend to use hotkeys a lot so I call them out. In future videos, where I cover more advanced topics, I'll be focusing on the theory, or the technique and less on the actions involved to get to that step.
Quality
Great tutorial but in the future can you just say which tool you're using as well as telling us the hotkeys, so that we can find it in the menus as well
Hey, I'll see what I can do. I've also started releasing two videos, one that goes over theory and one that is step by step for certain topics.
05:28
Hm , you are duplicating the root bone from it's bottom , this means that it is not attached
Yes, it is not attached (parented) when I duplicate it. At 08:00 I connect (parent) all the bones again after I've placed them all.
I duplicated the root bone as it maintains the Euler Rotation mode settings. Compared to making a new bone that will be in Quaternion.
HOw come that the ik works even when the bones are not attached ??
For the IK bones I extruded the second IK bone (making a parent) All IK needs to work is 2 bones and a target bone.
I talk about IK a bit more here: www.levelpixellevel.com/machinemaking/machine-making-episode-6-full-robot
And here is a very simple IK rig: gum.co/zKcld
how do you go to pose mode ?
thanks, i use blender 2.8, but still can follow,
Yeah! This was made in one of the Beta versions, but everything should still work in the current version.
The parent doesn't work at 8:02, what can I do? I cannot get the result like 8:08.....Thank you for your time.
Maybe try hitting alt p first and removing and parents that already exist. This might help, as they might already be connected to something.
Hey i just switched from maya to blender, can we make conroller for the join? Because in maya we animate character through the controller not the actual bones, and need to freeze transform the controller. So we can reset to the default position when needed. I hope someone had any ideas for this
In Blender, you use the joints (bones) to make the deform bones and the controllers. The joints themselves have a custom pivot that is set in edit mode. Then in pose mode, these can be set back to zero using alt-g (location) alt-s (scale) and alt-r (rotation). Try building some simple rigs using the joints as the controller shapes.
czcams.com/video/SfSIz12WjSI/video.html
Also, be sure to check out the rigify rigs, these will be extremely helpful to see how the architecture of rigs can be created in Blender.
czcams.com/video/dYiAd_08-0k/video.html
While this tutorial is for Blender 2.78, the main structures have not changed that much.
My bones pull apart after I add IK. Have I screwed up the parenting?
Maybe, make sure the pole vector bone is not parented to the IK bones themselves, this will cause issues. Also, make sure your Chain Length is set up correctly. This is found on the IK constraint and at 9:40
Hello! How Rigging some armatures to one mesh?It is real?
Do you mean mesh deform? Like an elbow or a knee?
@@LevelPixelLevel A have 2 individual armatures not bone.I want two armature modifer to one mesh.Multi modifer doesnt work in armature modifer.
@@Mr.Moonspill Yeah, you can have two armatures on one mesh, but you might need to name your bones different between the rigs.
can you try increasing the volume on these videos
Yes, I know these ones were a little hard to hear. I've tried to fix this on my later videos.
Thank you so much for these tuts! Helped me out alot. Yet of course I have to do things differently. I am rigging the ATAT from Star Wars. Basically the same as this arm except the shoulder needs to bob up and down, hence the 2nd pole(do i need?). You can see I have my roll correct to point at the knee_pole_vector by rolling it 90 deg since in front. but it then goes off to the side. I reset the roll back to 0deg then locked the x axis and its fine except its now in opposite direction from pole. I can move the pole to other side of the leg and it works but Im thinking this would be wrong. This is my main issue let alone how the heck do I rig the shoulder so it can move up and down as well. adding 1+ on chain length pops the whole thing 90deg. so I dunno. Hopefully link to image works
drive.google.com/open?id=15wOUVsAiHqtaneZ8C-eN3MwcdJlTXyGV
Oh ya forgot to say I know it needs that slight bend to know which way to bend but the geo is straight and that bend would make the axis bend off kilter right?
@@theartoframos Okay I see what you mean for the should here, I would actually have the leg work like a piston - meaning have the hip go right up to the top, then add an extra bone at the top of the leg to act as a piston: www.levelpixellevel.com/uploads/1/1/7/8/117873610/atat_orig.jpg
For the slight bend, I would actually make the default shape a little bent - now this means like .5 degree rotation in the direction of your choice.
Maybe one day I'll do a series on how to rig an ATAT, this looks like a really fun model to rig!
@@LevelPixelLevel WOW! Thank you so much for responding. I was going out of my mind because so much stuff out there but nothing was helping. Gonna try you other tutorial; it has a piston right. Thanks again so excited!
@@LevelPixelLevel Ok, so I think I got it.. sort of. Moved the geometry AND the respective bones .5deg towards the pole vector then rerigged, just to have the slight bend at the knee. Used "Blender" CZcams fundamental series to make the IK control on top the foot control. Right at the end they did what you said not to; change the pole angle. Instead I changed the roll 90deg so that X points towards the Pole. But I have this funky arbitrary angle happening. Its not any angle I can define to compensate with roll. All I did here is move the "Foot_IK_Ctrl" up on the Z. So I have no Idea whats going on. BUT Good news I got the shoulder going. After I made the leg IK chain I then had a separate shoulder bone I simply parented to the thigh bone a voila. I have to control it separately but that is doable and I expected that. But I still CANT animate this with a funky knee pole vector. What should I do? Here's a link to the image:
drive.google.com/file/d/1Msop2Fqo4WWNlMvOyizj2V3BI3WZfMVh/view?usp=sharing
@@LevelPixelLevel OK this time I SUPER figured it out. So I guess initially to counter the rotation so as to NOT have a rotation leg straight at the knee I guess I got confused and DID straighten it or something. I reapplied the rig over and over and ever increasing angles approaching 180deg(straight). I found that it works all the way up to 179.9 degrees. So getting math nerdy; if the foot is directly below the hip or shoulder in this case you can then pop out the leg .05 deg and then it turns back another .05 deg to make a 179.9 deg separation between the leg parts. BUT it weirdly only moves after moving the IK control a bit. So to be on the safe side it actually needs to be 179.8degress or .1deg on shoulder and -.1 at knee. So basically like you said it can be damn close to straight just not exactly.
how the fuck do you select mesh in pose mode?
I ran into the same issue: czcams.com/video/rX6Wmf7DQXQ/video.html
Let me know if that helps.
Your voice is 10 db lower then it needs to be
Working on that for future videos! Thanks for the feedback.
Np. I boosted it on phone with a app. Good video btw
Stil dong get it, it s too complicated(((.
Check out this file, it has a very simple IK structure in it. gumroad.com/l/zKcld
This might be a good place to start.
Also, even though this is video is 2.78 it is a great place to start as well: czcams.com/video/0U3NjTvwdWI/video.html
Some folks will get lost in the vector language :D so it requires some math/physics lessons on their part to truly understand. Vectors are no joke! HAHA oh and let's not get into that Geometry class discussion. Oh did they do their homework LOL, I'm sure many kids in school just sleep on those important math courses. Not realizing that it will truly come in handy later on in life after maybe locating 3D software tools like Blender online.
@@LevelPixelLevel thanks for answer). Ofcourse chek the link.
@@virtual_intel yeah i know that, there s a lot of math. In school math be very difficult to me :(. But im no be sad, i think that some day i will understand the IK rig).
@Level Pixel Level
did your tutorial and this is the result
czcams.com/video/g2ou2i7joc8/video.html
This is awesome! Nice work!
@@LevelPixelLevel thanks good tut btw
Super confused got watch a few more times
The fact that you sound like Elon musk. **
nice tutorial