Introduction to Rigging!

The post is in three parts. Part 1 is above and Part 2 and 3 are below.

It is with great pleasure that I present to you this special guest tutorial from Lee Salvemini!

If you're new to Blender, welcome! Lee Salvemini is kind of a big deal. He worked on Sintel, Elephants dream and spent two years on Star Wars post game titles for LucasArts.

Today he has transcended his magical cloud of fame to present us with a complete introductory Blender rigging tutorial for free.

This mammoth of a tutorial has been split up into three parts (because I know you guys don't like long posts).

Part 1 is at the top of the page, and you will find Part 2 and 3 below.

Part 2

In Part 2 you will discover how to:

  • Make the head and neck animation ready
  • Make the shoulders and arms animation ready
  • Create a hand and fingers rig
  • Mirroring a rig from one side of the body to the other

 

Part 3

In Part 3 you will discover how to:

  • Create an IK leg rig
  • Create a heel/toe roll foot rig
  • Make the hips and torso animation ready
  • Apply custom bone shapes
  • Manage bone layers

 

"Thank" Lee

I very rarely promote stuff on this site (especially other people's stuff), so I'm hoping you won't reach for your pitchforks when I mention that Lee's actually selling some training DVDs.

His training DVDs are appropriately titled 'Character Creation', and it teaches (you guessed it) how to make a character. A lot of people have been looking for tutorials on this stuff, and if you ask me there's no more of an experienced person than Lee when it comes characters. With experience on Sintel, Elephants Dream and Lucas Arts, he's certainly knows his stuff.

Volume 1 walks you through the modelling process and Volume 2 shows you an in-depth rigging walkthrough.

The usual price of Volume I & II is $120, but Lee has been nice enough to offer Blender Guru readers a 25% discount. Bringing the total price for both volumes down to $90.

>>Click here to access the discount<<

NOTE: The discount is only available on the above link.

He's also created an impressive trailer that's worth watching:

 

Woooo yeah.

If you have a minute, please leave a comment thanking Lee for presenting these free tutorials :) He's done the community a great service by making these available to everyone.