Armatures – Blender 2.80 Fundamentals

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This tutorial is part of the Blender Fundamentals series, produced by Dillon Gu.

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Armatures in Blender #

Armatures in Blender are a crucial tool for creating complex and realistic animations, particularly when rigging characters or other organic structures. Armatures consist of a hierarchy of bones that are used to control the deformation and movement of a mesh object. This guide will provide an overview of armatures in Blender and their use in the rigging process.

Creating Armatures #

To create an armature in Blender, follow these steps:

1. In the 3D Viewport, press “Shift+A” to open the “Add” menu.
2. Select “Armature” and then choose “Single Bone” from the options.

A single bone will be created at the 3D cursor’s location. This bone will be the root of your armature.

Editing Armatures #

Once you’ve created an armature, you can edit its structure to fit your needs:

1. Switch to Edit Mode by pressing “Tab” or selecting Edit Mode from the dropdown menu in the 3D Viewport’s top left corner.
2. Select and manipulate bones using the usual Blender transform tools (“G” for grab, “R” for rotate, and “S” for scale).
3. Create new bones by selecting a bone and pressing “E” to extrude, or press “Shift+A” to add a new bone at the 3D cursor’s location.

Rigging a Mesh with an Armature #

To rig a mesh object with an armature, follow these steps:

1. Position the armature inside the mesh object, ensuring the bones align with the structure you want to control (e.g., a character’s limbs, joints, or spine).
2. Select the mesh object first, then hold “Shift” and select the armature.
3. Press “Ctrl+P” to open the “Set Parent” menu, and choose “With Automatic Weights” from the options. Blender will calculate the influence each bone has on the surrounding mesh vertices.

Using Weight Painting #

Weight painting is a technique for fine-tuning the influence of armature bones on mesh vertices. After parenting a mesh to an armature, follow these steps to adjust bone weights:

1. Select the mesh object and switch to Weight Paint Mode in the 3D Viewport’s top left corner.
2. Select a bone in the armature. The mesh will display colors corresponding to the influence of the selected bone, with red representing high influence and blue representing low influence.
3. Paint the mesh to adjust the influence of the selected bone using the brush tools in the Tool Shelf (press “T” to toggle visibility). This allows you to create smooth transitions and realistic deformations when animating.

Posing an Armature #

To pose an armature, follow these steps:

1. Select the armature and switch to Pose Mode in the 3D Viewport’s top left corner.
2. Select individual bones and use the standard transform tools (“G” for grab, “R” for rotate, and “S” for scale) to pose the armature.
3. Keyframe the transformations to create animations.

By mastering armatures and their application in rigging, you can create realistic and complex animations for characters, creatures, and other organic structures in Blender. Armatures provide a powerful and versatile toolset for controlling mesh deformations and bringing your 3D creations to life.