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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

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Product type Paperback
Published in Apr 2024
Publisher Packt
ISBN-13 9781803238807
Length 164 pages
Edition 1st Edition
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Author (1):
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Jaime Kelly Jaime Kelly
Author Profile Icon Jaime Kelly
Jaime Kelly
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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...

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