Armature Basics — Blender

Work with Rigging — Blender Serie — Episode#01

Welcome to Blender, the free and open-source 3D animation suite. It supports the entirety of the 3D pipeline — modeling, rigging, animation, simulation, rendering, compositing and motion tracking, even video editing and game creation.

My idea is to learn by playing with the tool first. Hitting the ground running!

Here is the video, my first approach about animation, specifically, armature:

Here is a 20 step-by-step (so that I do not forget):

Step 01- In a new file, do not click anywhere (Wherever the 3D cursor is located is where the next item you create/delete will be dis/placed), Delete the cube;

Step 02- On Object-Mode, Type Shift A (Add), Choose Mesh > Cylinder;

Step 03- In sequence, Type 1 and 5; this will put perspective to ortho front view; (go to User Prefs, Inputs, enable Emulate Number Pad option is great for laptops without number pads);

Step 04- Type Ctrl + R; In edit mode, will bring up options to slice or cut faces;

Step 05- Type E (extrude the top); While in edit mode, selected vertices can be extruded; use LMB (left mouse button) to grab and confirm with RMB (right mouse button);

Step 06- Select Bottom; use LMB to grab and RMB to confirm;

Step 07- Type E (extrude it);

Step 08- On Object mode, lift the cylinder to floor level;

Step 09- Shift + A (Add), Create an Armature (single bone);

Step 10- Select Armature;

Step 11- On Object-Mode, enable X-Ray, in Properties viewport;

Step 12- Type S (scale the bone);

Step 13- In Edit-Mode, Type E (first select the head of the bone), and extrude a new one;

Step 14- Type Ctrl + R (to make vertices);

Step 15- On Object-Mode, select the Cylinder and the bones, in this order, and...

Step 16- Type P (parent); Creates or breaks child/parent relationships. To create C/P relationships, hold down the shift key and select the child first, then the parent. Hit Ctrl + P. To clear a relationship, do the same except hit Alt + P;

Step 17- Choose Armature Deform > With Automatic Weights;

Step 18- In Pose-Mode, Select the head, Type R (rotate the Armature);

Step 19- Deselect objects, Type Ctrl + A, Select Cylinder (RMB), Type Ctrl + Shift, to go to Weight Painting Mode;

Step 20- Use the Tools tab, and have fun!

There you have it!

Simple and functional episode. Try it yourself! 5-minute task…

Bye!

Consider to Subscribe to my YouTube Channel for new videos episodes!

‘Till the next episode! The bullet physics engine, my next goal!

Extra-reading:)

How can Blender be free?

People usually associate freeware software with the terms bad, with limited features or just a demo. Blender is fully functional. It works as an open-sourced, community development program where people from around the world contribute to its success.

Blender is a rendering \ animation \ game development open-sourced freeware program maintained by the Blender Foundation and can be downloaded, free of charge, from www.blender.org. The goal of the foundation can be summarized as follows:

The Blender Foundation is an independent organization (a Dutch stichting), acting as a non-profit public benefit corporation, with the following goals:

1. To establish services for active users and developers of Blender;
2. To maintain and improve the current Blender product via a public accessible source code system under the GNU GPL license;
3. To establish funding or revenue mechanisms that serve the foundation’s goals and cover the foundation’s expenses;
4. To give the worldwide Internet community access to 3D technology in general, with Blender as a core;
Blender website (blender.org)

References & Credits:

Falling Cloth Tutorial — 10 Step-by_Step

www.blender.org — Blender Foundation website

www.blenderartists.org — Reputable places to make sense of 3D things

Blender Basics book by James Chronister (Thank you, man!) visit: http://www.cdschools.org/blenderbasics to get your copy for free :)

Episodes: #01 — #2 — #03 — #4 — #05 — #6 — #07 — #8 — #09 — #10