1st Edition
A Complete Guide to Character Rigging for Games Using Blender
This book is a comprehensive guide to using Blender to create character rigs for games, breaking down the technicalities of rigging tools and techniques into easily digestible chunks. It provides all the tools needed to go from a static character model to an animation-ready, high quality, and fast performing game rig.
Written to be accessible and easy to follow, the book covers character rigging theory that is supported by industry standard examples of how to apply that theory to character rigs for video games. It demonstrates the reasoning behind rigging decisions followed by instructions and examples on how to apply that knowledge to rig creation. It includes chapters that focus on the character deformation techniques that raise the visual quality of the model and subsequently of the animation and game it will be used in.
This book will be vital reading to those studying games animation as well as early-career rigging artists, character animators, modeling artists, technical animators, and technical artists.
Chapter 1: Introduction.
Chapter 2: The Big Picture.
Chapter 3: What Is a Game Rig.
Chapter 4: Blender Tools and Concepts.
Chapter 5: 3D World and Transformation.
Chapter 6: Armatures.
Chapter 7: Bones.
Chapter 8: Mesh Topology and Deformation.
Chapter 9: Scene and Model Preparation.
Chapter 10: Naming.
Chapter 11: Rig Creation Approach.
Chapter 12: Root Bone.
Chapter 13: Body Deformation Skeleton.
Chapter 14: Bone Orientations.
Chapter 15: Body Skeleton Orientations.
Chapter 16: Weights.
Chapter 17: Weight Painting Method.
Chapter 18: Weighting the Body.
Chapter 19: Weight Transferring Techniques.
Chapter 20: Bone Constraints.
Chapter 21: Essential Constraints.
Chapter 22: Dealing with Clutter.
Chapter 23: B-Bone Rigging.
Chapter 24: Drivers.
Chapter 25: Rig Building Blocks.
Chapter 26: Body Rig.
Chapter 27: Correctives.
Chapter 28: Facial Rigs.
Chapter 29: Cloth and Hair.
Chapter 30: Space Switches.
Chapter 31: Props.
Chapter 32: Rig Finalizing.
Chapter 33: Animation.
Chapter 34: Export.
Biography
Armin Halač is a video game technical and character animator originally from Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, currently living and working in Berlin, Germany. With over a decade of experience, Armin is a principal animator in a genre leading, story driven game studio. His previous work includes creating rigs and animation for games, short films, and ads.
When Armin isn't working on his next project, he can be found cycling, creating music, and taking long walks with his two dogs, Mitzi and Pablo.
You can find him on Twitter at @ArminHalac or visit his website www.arminhalac.com.
“This book reveals things that I did not know about Blender that have completely changed the way that I’m going to be rigging characters going forward. It’s a really comprehensive breakdown of the rigging process. Would I recommend it to students? Absolutely. Would I recommend to professionals moving on from Maya to a Blender workflow? Absolutely!”
Richard Shilling, 3D Artist and creator of the Dikko! 3D Animation YouTube channel"If you are looking for a Blender rigging handbook, look no further. Armin covers the full character rigging process for games. From fundamentals all the way to advanced techniques, it's all there. I especially enjoyed the chapters on bone placement - which is an often overlooked topic - and the advanced Bendy Bones techniques!"
Todor Nikolov is a Freelance 3D Artist and CG Generalist and creator of CG Dive Tutorials, which can be found at cgdive.com
“When Armin told me he was writing a book on Blender Rigging, I was excited; the community has needed that void filled for a long time. What he's accomplished here is a fantastic addition to any bookshelf-- part comprehensive reference, part masterclass, distilling his many years of experience and experimentation into an end-to-end workflow for producing animated characters for 3D games. Whether you're a Blender user looking to add to your skillset or a rigger coming from another 3D application, this book is for you. I even picked up a few new tricks, and I've been using Blender for over twenty years.”
Charles Wardlaw is a Senior Software Engineer best known for his work as Software Developer on Next Gen and Maya and the Three for Netflix and as Software Engineer on Sony’s Across the Spiderverse.
