Search icon CANCEL
Arrow left icon
Explore Products
Best Sellers
New Releases
Books
Videos
Audiobooks
Learning Hub
Conferences
Free Learning
Arrow right icon
Arrow up icon
GO TO TOP
3D Character Rigging in Blender

You're reading from   3D Character Rigging in Blender Bring your characters to life through rigging and make them animation-ready

Arrow left icon
Product type Paperback
Published in Apr 2024
Publisher Packt
ISBN-13 9781803238807
Length 164 pages
Edition 1st Edition
Tools
Concepts
Arrow right icon
Author (1):
Arrow left icon
Jaime Kelly Jaime Kelly
Author Profile Icon Jaime Kelly
Jaime Kelly
Arrow right icon
View More author details
Toc

Table of Contents (14) Chapters Close

Preface 1. Part 1: An Introduction
2. Chapter 1: Introduction to Rigs and Terminologies FREE CHAPTER 3. Chapter 2: Starting with Bones 4. Part 2: Rigging
5. Chapter 3: Using Weighting Tools to Give Life to a Mesh 6. Chapter 4: Beginning the Rigging Process 7. Chapter 5: Getting Started with Weight Painting 8. Part 3: Advanced Techniques
9. Chapter 6: Using IK and Rig Controls 10. Chapter 7: Getting Started with Shape Keys 11. Chapter 8: Beyond the Basics 12. Index 13. Other Books You May Enjoy

Damped Track

Damped Track is great for making one bone point toward another. I find placing a Damped Track constraint on the head is always a good idea; it’s a simple constraint but an exceptionally effective one. Figure 8.7 shows a Damped Track constraint in action:

Figure 8.7 – Damped Track

Figure 8.7 – Damped Track

Damped Track can be used for many different things, mostly when pointing at an object.

A surprise place you can use Damped Track is in a tail!

Model a simple tail and place a chain of bones in it. I used automatic weights just to keep it quick (great when it works).

Figure 8.8 – Damped Track in a tail setup

Figure 8.8 – Damped Track in a tail setup

Each bone in the chain has a Damped Track constraint that targets the bone above it; it’s as simple as that, but grab the base bone and rotate it to see how impressively effective the result is! Note the Influence value; the stronger the value, the stronger the effect.

This lets you put the base...

lock icon The rest of the chapter is locked
Register for a free Packt account to unlock a world of extra content!
A free Packt account unlocks extra newsletters, articles, discounted offers, and much more. Start advancing your knowledge today.
Unlock this book and the full library FREE for 7 days
Get unlimited access to 7000+ expert-authored eBooks and videos courses covering every tech area you can think of
Renews at €18.99/month. Cancel anytime