Digital Design - Lab Assignment: Rigging in Blender

In this lab, you will be able to do simple 3D character rigging and weight painting using Blender

Before the lab, you need to

• Have a created 3D humanoid model in Rhino.
• Have the latest version of Blender installed in your computer. (download here)

Part 1: Exporting 3D Model in Rhino

1. Export the created 3D humanoid model in Rhino as Wavefront (.obj) format Select 3D
Model -> File -> Export Selected -> Save As -> OBJ (.*obj)

Part 2: Rigging and Weight Painting in Blender

Blender is a professional, free and open-source 3D computer graphics software. It is widely
used for 3D modeling, rigging and skinning etc.

1. Open Blender in your computer, there are few objects in the scene by default.

2. Right click on each object to select and press delete key on your keyboard. And click
on Delete when the option pops up to delete each of them, since we do not need
them for our lab.

3. After cleaning up our Blender scene, we need to import our 3D model file Stickman
into Blender.
 Click on File -> Import -> Wavefront (.obj), since your 3D model is imported in .obj
format.

4. Right click on the model to select and use the transform toolbar on the left or
transform pane on right to position, rotate and scale the imported humanoid model.
Use the change view icon in the top right corner to change the viewing perspective.
5. To start adding bones into our character model, press Add from top menu and select
Amature -> Single Bone

Then select the created bone and check In Front which is under Object Data tab in the
window on the right, which will allow us see through the bones inside the 3D model. Object
Data -> Viewport Display-> In Front
Next we move this bone to the center of the Hip
6. Next, to add and edit more bones, we need to change Object Mode to Edit Mode in
the tool menu below

7. Right click to select the top point of the bones and press E to extrude.

Move the mouse towards the direction you want to extrude and hit the left click to
confirm. (Alternatively select the bone and press Shift+E)
You need to extrude bones from bottom to the top and the final upper part of body
should be look like below:

For the better organization we will rename our bones. You can right click select the bone and
change the name in the window on right side.
 You can display the names of all the bones by checking Names in the window on
right side. Object Data -> Viewport Display-> Names

8. For the arm part we will start from another new bone. Make sure you are under the
Edit Mode and left click on the left shoulder to put the cursor, where your bone will
be created.
Press Shift + A to create the bone and adjust it to a proper position.
Repeat the same steps as the body part extruding from the shoulder to the fingers
and left leg to toes respectively. Naming reference for the left side body part should
be body_part.L (Eg: Hand.L)
9. Next, we will duplicate the bones of right side to the left side. Select all the bones in
the right side and right click and select Symmetrize.
10. At the end of this rigging stage, we need to parent separated parts of the bones. Use
holding Shift key and right mouse click to select multiple objects in a sequence.
- Select the shoulder bones and the chest bone and Ctrl + P
- Click on Keep Offset to parent the shoulder bones to the chest bone
Same for the hip part and hands
And we have completed the rigging for the 3D character so far.
11. Next we will proceed to weight painting stage.
- Enter Object Mode and right mouse click to select mesh of the 3D character,
then Shift + right mouse click multi-select the bones.
- Press Ctrl + P and click on With Automatic Weights
- Hotkey A can deselect all selected objects

With Automatic Weights calculates how much influence a particular bone would
have on vertices based on the distance from those vertices to a particular bone
(“bone heat” algorithm). This influence will be assigned as weights in the vertex
groups.
12. If Blender does not give you the results you require, you will have to manually alter
the weights of vertices in relation to the vertex groups they belong to and have
influence in.
To view and edit the weights, select bones under the Object Mode and go to Pose
Mode

Right mouse click to select any one of the bones

Right mouse click to 3D model

Ctrl + Tab to enter weight painting mode. You can right mouse click to select
different bone to see the weights.
 The Groups are painted so the body of each bone is in red and the zone between the
two bones are gradually going from 1 to 0. This will bend nicely. If, for a special
reason, you want a side to react differently, you can always move the bone while
painting and try the new modification you just did.

The first thing you'll notice is the blue color of the mesh. Blender provides an easy
way to quickly visualise the weight value of each vertex. This is the color spectrum
used:

1. Weight: Weight to assign in vertex group

2. Radius: Radius of the brush
3. Strength: How powerful the effect of the brush is when applied

A quick reference video for weight painting in Blender if you don’t know how to start!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tl4qTgwQwYw

Once you have done the weight painting, exit Weight Paint mode and enter Object Mode,
and select the both skeleton and character mesh model to export as a fbx. file, which will be
used in our next session!

File -> Export ->FBX (.fbx)

Name it RiggedStickman and save it at your convenient location file. And
click the Export FBX button on the top right.

Congrats! we have done the rigging and weight painting session.