Blender Character Creation: Rigging 1/2 

If there's someone here who had problems with the knee stopping its bending once they added a pole target. Then make sure to add a little bend in your bones in edit mode otherwise it wont know which way to bend towards.

Gah there is so much to learn.. So easy to screw it all up.

I wasn't sure what he meant when he said "I'll save in case everything goes horribly wrong" until I tried to do it lmao everything when horribly wrong

very good series but blender messed hard with me. first since this is almost 5y old, i got some very diferent controls. i will leave here some things i noticed. Recalculate roll on global axis, shift+N (edit mode) to parent and assign ik make sure to double click the last bone before selection. i might have activated thru some short cuts this behavior but if its acting weird try that. and for starters like me, go to setings and change the undo to the max since 32 times was way to few for me once i realized i have done some mistake. and save it often, my project crashed and the autosave didn't do the job. i lost 2h worth of project.

16:27 in newer versions of Blender all you have to do to Mirror bones is select them (in Edit mode), press "w" and then "y" ("Symmetrize"). If you have the names right (with ".R" or ".L" at the end) everything will be mirrored and renamed automatically.

For everyone having trouble with that first IK Bone: Make sure you actually cleared the parent for the IK bone. If the IK bone just noodles around but nothing budges, it's probably still parented to the ankle which is no good. This happens when you extrude and then clear parent while only selecting the joint thingie, not the bone itself. Go into edit mode, press alt+P, unparent, try and create the IK again. Like if it helped so others see this.

I was actually rigging my own model with the help of your tutorial, and I noticed that in some parts you forgot to mention some key moves for example; at 4:40 you switch into edit mode without mentioning it and I used at least 15 minutes wondering what I was doing wrong when you were supposed to link the bones together. This tutorial helped me a lot though, couldn't have done anything without it!

Blender's UI and controls are so infuriating. I spend most of my time fighting the software. Great tutorial though.

statement:the character i am riging has no legs.

I'm finding myself constantly coming back to this vid to remind myself of some of the rigging steps......Excellent work man

You really need to state every time you jump between edit mode and pose mode.. it's so hard to follow when you leap between them.

12:50 For future Blender users: this can also be accomplished through Armature -> Switch Direction (hotkey: Alt + F)

If anybody is following the tutorial and found around the 9 min mark they couldn't rotate the foot bone once they parented it to the foot controller bone...make sure you click the Manipulate Center Points button. The button is on the bottom left of the 3D view screen, has 3 blue dots with arrows facing both directions. I was stuck on this part for a bit when the foot wouldn't rotate.

You need to explain teh foot rig a bit slower and more clearly. How do I jnow when your going into edit and pose mode and its not clear hearign you when you indicate what shortcut to use.

I just want to say the videos you've been putting out lately have been so immensely helpful! Thank you so much for spending the time to help us learn. You are definitely one of my favorite youtubers and game designers. Thanks again!

Hi! When i press Ctrl N it shows to recalculate at negative and positive global x, y and z! I should use then all or just negative or positive?

Not sure if I've thanked you yet Mr Lague, but I always return to this series when creating a new model/rig. Wonderfully concise whilst covering all bases. Brilliant stuff and it's from 4 years ago!

Me who doesn't know how to download blender : *Hmm, nice*

Just to le you know I watch this same video at least 15 times every day, no kidding. Started learning blender 1 week ago and your channel is speeding up my learning curve. Set a patreon so I can monthy donate

Hi, Sebastian. In minutes 17:40 - 17:53. When I was using Ctrl + P(Set Parent To With Automatic Weights) It's nothing happen. What's wrong?

I absolutely love this tutorial. It's to the god damn point and not wasting my time with "uuh" and "umm". It's a 19 minute video that feels far longer because it's packed with one bit of useful information right after the other, and that's the way it should be.

when i move my leg up and bone with the IK bone. it dosnt want to stay only on the Y axis. It wants to go one the X and Y. FUCK IK BONES!

If anyone has issues with the mesh not following the armature after 17:50. Remove the modifier for automatic weights (which parents the armature to the mesh) and double check that all NON-CONTROLLER bones have "Deform" checked. My "Foot" and "Toes" bones had them unchecked after following the tutorial. It is VERY important that you remove the parenting between mesh and armature before you check "Deform" on your bones, it doesn't work if it's still parented.

Please can you help us.. With the new version when you press CTRL + N (At 7:22 in the video) we have a lot more options. Here's a comparison of the new and old menu: i.imgur.com/H8qYzyJ.png EDIT: For anyone in the future having the same problem: The only new thing in the menu is the negatives. So just choose Global+ X/Y/Z-Axis and that should do it.

When i finally came to the part of parenting the Bones and the Mesh, i pressed "ctrl P" but the only thing it said was: "Bone Heat Weighthing: failed to find solution for one or more bones" any ideas what i should do?

So I rotate the footroll bone 180 degrees, and it looks fine in edit mode, then when I switch to pose mode instead of the rotation point changing, the footroll bone is just stick out the back of the heel. What.

At 11:26, Ctrl+alt+s doesnt work for me at all DX what can I do? S is the only thing that works and its horribly messy...

Help, when I try to have the leg control bone and foot roll bone parented to the leg ik, they both can't be parented. So if the control bone was parented, the foot roll wouldn't work, and vice versa

what a nightmare

Hey at 12:50, u say we have to rotate the bone in edit mode 180° but when I do that, in pose mode, my bone rotates around the tail but the tail is now where the head was...how to fix???

@Sebastian Lague at 12:50 you tell us to make sure the bone is rotating from the other side, but mine wont rotate at all in pose mode and only rotates from the middle of the bone in edit mode not from one of the sides. Would you know why that is or how to fix it?

7:15 I press control + N and click right away while in pose mode. I ended up loading new scene without saving the last one. FUUUUCCKKKK!!! good thing auto save is always on.

13:18 i nead help my rotating bone is the bone of the ik i have do all sort of things to fix it but it still don't work if you are a genius how read the comment pls send help

Also flip names changes to .R but it still has .001 on name

HOLY my automatic weighting was absolutely crazy, everything affected everything else. Raising his arm stretched that entire side of the body. Time to weight paint!

Seb, your tuts are awesome. You do a better job than anyone else I've seen. Clear, concise, to the point. You go through at a smart pace, and the quality of your work is high. Though you could sell all this, you give it away for free, and we're all in-debt to you.

Can someone help me with the foot control bone?

Control shift alt C is so hard to press lol

Can you do a blender video on face rigging?

I'm learning so many concepts here and in the mesh creation, but I'm never gonna remember them all. I might have to do these a 2nd or even a 3rd time.

Reading all these problems with foot control bones made my laugh. Because i could do the rig but i had some troubles with the hat. Whenever i move my rig in a pose mode, my hat isnt attached and it just stays on one place. When i click on my mash, body and hat is seen as one object though. Can anybody help me with that silly question?

Sebastian, ran into a problem. About 11m30s when duplicating the left foot heel/toe bones you say, "use shift D to duplicate and then ctl-alt-s to shrink/fatten." For whatever reason, that didn't work with me. MacOS X / Blender 2.75. Had to use the menu item to make this work. Select menu items: Armature->Transform->Scale BBone in Edit Mode. I don't know why. But there may be some other folks tripped up by that.

At 4:43 when I try and parent the bones I don't have those options. My options are set parent to: object, object(keep transform), armature deform, bone, bone relative

AAAAHHHHHH!!! This is so much information at such a fast speed. I'm going to go insane!

When I make the left leg pole target, the knee joint becomes frozen, so when I move the IK controller of the leg, the leg only moves straight. I have the chain length set to 2. The pole target rotates the leg when I move it to the other side, but the knee joint remains straight. Any ideas? Help would be greatly appreciated.

Alt+click applies to all selected

To anyone having trouble with the rotating 180 degrees part at around 12:50 please read this: I noticed when I rotated it 180 degrees it rotated on two axis and it didn't look quite right. In order to fix this I quite simply pressed R+shift to rotate it slowly and kept going until the number after the word 'Rot' in the bottom left reached 180. Its primitive and manual I know but it helped me when nothing else works. :)

OK OK OK OK.... I SCREWED UP SOMEWHERE!!!! Why doesn't my hat move from the rig? The stupid hat isn't moving...

What if the message that says Bone Heat Weighting Failed came out?

13:21 By changing the parent of the IK bone doesn't it remove what we did at 8:54 to be the leg Control bone (The big one all the one down)

Great video! I've learned so much from watching this entire series. I have one suggestion, however, that I found in a blender forum. When mirroring the bones at 16:22, all of those steps used can be done by pressing W, then selecting Symmetrize. It does everything, duplicate and flip, flip names, etc., in a single step. Thanks for the great work and easy to follow instruction. EDIT: Apparently, this only works in newer versions of Blender, probably 2.8 and later.

in blender 2.82 CTRL + N not working. This is 'new file"

for people who can not get the bones working like they should at 10:32, in blender 2.79 you need to make the foot bone copie the ROTATION of the legg control bone, hope this helps everyone further

how did you scale foot roll bone that it was scalling symmetrically? i am a windows 8.1 user.

Man thanks for that tutorial, I used to work in maya for a long time and made the switch to blender because it was way more capable for concept art. I was always sceptical about rigging and animation in blender, because i was so used to rigging in maya. But now that im actually getting into blenders rigging, i'm mindblown! Everything is so simple and conveinient, at this point I got no Idea why people are using anything else but blender... Since 2.8 there is really no reason not to use it. Guess it will be industry standart in the not too distant future

Automatic weights never work for me... cryy cry

Please help me, when i pressed ctrl P, select with automatic weights, it wrote: Bone Heating, failed to find a solution for one or more bones. why, how what?? :((

"Bone Heat Weighting: failed to find solution for one or more bones" Every time I try to parent the bones to the mesh, this message comes up. Why?

Can you please not go at such a blinding speed and assuming that everyone's worked? Christ

I wish I knew how you selsct the ends of bones nd rotate them sensibly like that. When I press 3 my toon is deleted, when I rotate I have to re-position the bones to get the circles ends lined up. When I press E nothing happens. How do you Extrude bones, how do you get the bones to pivot sensibly with one circle always aligned and how is it that 3 deletes. I am using default settings. Very unwieldy . Just looking for Key shortcuts. Thanks!

excuse me but how can i add hair bone and physic ?

Hello, i have a little problem, when i am in edit mode its completely ok but if i am in the pose mode the foot rig is turned 180 degrees away, i am at the big foot controling bone part. thanks for reply.

I am having some trouble with this step of the tutorial. 12:52 has us rotate the foot roll bone 180 in edit mode to change the rotation point. When I do that and go back into pose mode, it looks likes its rotated 180 around the original rotation point (i.e. it's sticking out the back of his ankle). Does anyone know why this might be?

best "shortcut" Shift + Ctrl + Alt + C xd

9:08 I can't do this step the menu is only showing me one option "Connected" It doesn't show the other option "keep offset"

Holy shit i am newbie and came here to lerean some basic, now my mind blowned up :(

pro tip, at 11:00, start a new save file

I am up to @12:46 and when i rotate in edit mode it seems to work, but when i get into pose mode it just rotates from the same point it did before, only it's now on the opposite side of the leg (rotated 180 from where it was, it's like i never went into edit mode)... Help me if you can.

Yo anybody having a problem after adding the ik on the lower bone, enter pose mode and try to move the bone the legik.l starts to move on its own???

what am i supposed to do if my pole_target works on the opposite side but not on the front side? It goes weird backwards like if he's on drugs or something xD

To everyone who has the problem with the foot rotation when you correct the "Pole Angle" Click the first bone that is not in correct rotation(if you're following the video, it will be the bone labeled "Foot.L" and in the bone menu (where you name the bone, and select deform) there will be the a checkbox that says "Inherit Rotation" and it will be checked. Deselect that box, and your foot should rotate to the right position.

Blender has very nicely changed nothing, had to rename all the bones ...

Howzit, nice tutorial China! Thx for sharing.

I truggle a lot with the shoulder and arm, I think I have modeled it wrong, its hard to get it it to bend without bending it into the character.. :p

Im going insane.. I swear that 50.000 of the views this video has, gotta be me the last three days! It's going way too fast (And i look with the speed set to 0,5) and rewinds a billion times and redo stuff but still my bones are just not behaving like the ones in this video! I´m at 13:28 and my leg just ran away up to the frickin head! :o He is not going to be able to walk if his leg is bent that way xD

I go to the end and tried to set the automatic weights 17: 48 but It gives an error saying "failed to find a solution for one or more bones". I'm doing the same rigging process as you but on a different model. It worked when I did it with your model. Does anyone know a fix?

+Sebastian Lague My Right Leg (from the Knee down) seems to be for some reason attached to the bones on the left leg as well. The mesh is now deformed into between where it should be and my left leg. (My left leg is fine, just like it was in your video, around 18:20 ). I've redone the parenting between the mesh and the bones at least a dosen times, and I always get the same problem. I have no idea why this has happened. and why I can't do anything about it.

THERE'S GOT TO BE AN EASIER WAY

For all those who got lost on 4:50 trying to find the parent offset option, REMEMBER to switch to edit mode, I spent 30 to 40 mins trying to figure out how to get that option and it was just that I wasn't in edit mode, I was in pose mode D:

Ctrl + N on the newest version of blender has more options (two for each axis, positive and negative) And yet none of them turned the fot the other way.. Result: My the knee bends behind like a goat leg... Any help?

remember the pole target does get messed up if ur leg or arm is going all ways but strait try putting the pole target for the knee behing the leg and 180 degress i learned it the hard way but tru 90 180 - and +

im making a mochi model(just like a normal mochi with leg), done with modelling and texture that part is easy cuz most of them square, but watching the rigging video, my reaction is : HOW THE HELL I INTERPRET THIS TO A MOCHI BODY?!

GREAT tutorial, easy to understand and follow.. On time 5:53, i try to made the IK connection between LegIK.L and LowerLegL but failed.. I does uncheck the Deform button and clear its parent... After that, i pressed the Shift + i button (mac OS), but nothing appeared, the IK's small windows does not appear.. Please help :`( ....

If changing the pivot does not work with ",", try using "." (period/full stop) and selecting "Active element" or "Individual origins"

VERY USEFUL TIP: IF, and this is a very big IF, you come from another tutorial (and are very new to blender, as am I) and just want to figure out how to make a skeleton for your creations, make sure you apply the mirror modifier to your body. I spent a good few hours wondering why when I parented the armature to the body, and did the leg test, why the left leg control controlled both legs and the right leg control did almost nothing. I JUST figured out that because it was still mirroring the adjustments I made to the left side and not the individual sides. Rookie Mistake, I know but hey there's a learning curve for things like this; especially when you prefer coding over asset making. (Edit: You also don't need an separate bone for the knee, as doing so makes it to where the upper bone does not move). TL;DR: Tutorials are your friend, but make sure you apply modifiers and don't go crazy with bones until you KNOW what you're doing

You can use rigify for this, protip.

Yo that leg rig is the BEST LEG RIG IVE EVER MADE! PLZ DO ONE FOR THE ARMS! I love this tutorial. Very easy to understand everything. Ive watched this same video like a million times trying to memorize that rig for future preference. But every human model Ive made has that same exact rig. PLZ PLZ PLZ make a rig like the fook for the arms.

when i'm rigging legs it still not go in the same direction of the pool targets

No idea if you are going to answer this but : When I rotate my bone at 12:50 it doesn't rotate straight. It also rotates it along another axis. No idea why this is happening. I followed everything you said

Hi, I've got up to 14.21 but find that, although everything works mechanically, the foot_controller.L can pull the foot bones slightly beyond the floor before it stops (e.g. 1 unit). Can this be fixed? I can send a picture if necessary.

You can use the symmetrize option under armature to copy all the bones on one side to the other, will also auto flip names!!

So I did something wrong, and the arm bones move both of the arms. How do I unlink bones from the mesh?

I Have did What You Did While Moving The Torso Bone And Your Knee Joint Works Fine. But In My Case It is bending Front and Back ,Left And Right :3

I founded similar tutorials for 550 dollars on a website!!! You gived to me for free!!! Thx!! I suggest to slow a bit.... for beginners is really hard to follow!

I'm only having one issue so far. When I pose my character, the hair doesn't move with the head. And if I do that Ctrl+J thing, It messes up the hair really bad. How should I go about fixing that?

12:45 This foot control bone rotation doesn't work for me as shown in video, after rotating it 180 deg in Edit mode it also appears 180 deg rotated in Pose mode. What did I miss?

When I try to fix that bending you are talking about and in Bone Constraints tab look for "armature" or something similar in Pole Target list, it gives me like six choices, and none of them are right. Also in that list I have my newly created bone's name, but no matter what I select, it doesn't come up on another list that appears below. Oh, and I use Blender 2.73. Any ideas? Need it quick, thanks

ok........ ugh...... I did everything in the video and my end result is a joke. I move the control boes and all my bones do like 10 back flips

Hi! your video is great. But I just have a problem: at 17:53, when I press With automatics weight it's says me ''Bone heat weighting: failed to find solution for one or more bones''. I know I comment that 4 years after your video but please if someone knows how to help me... I don't really want to restart everything...

i pressed control N, and the new files windoe popped up. But when i pressed SHIFT N, it showed me the recalibration window! But other than that, great tutorial! Edit: As soon as i copied the position of my foot to the leg, it stayed at the tail, but started spasming like crazy and refused to move. can you explain? Note: my model has no toes.