[Introduction to Blender 2.8] Let’s start modelling (5) Manually adding bones

Introduction

In this article, I will show you how to use Blender, make a simple model, and upload it to STYLY for those who have never done modeling before.  

Previous article

Previous article is here. ↓

This article explained how to paste textures.

What we will do in this article

In this article, I will show you how to add bones to your modeled object.

There are two ways to do this: one is to create the bones manually, and the other is to use the ones already prepared.

Click here for how to use what is already prepared ↓

How to make

Preparing the model

Prepare a 3D model that is in a T-pose.

If each part is a separate object, select them all and press [Ctrl]+[J] to unify them.

Use the [5] key on the numeric keypad to make a parallel projection, and [1] to make a front view.

If you don’t have a numeric keypad, you can select both from [View] in the menu bar above.

Adding Bones

Now let’s add bones.

In Blender, a bone is called an armature.

If the 3D cursor is moving, press [Shift]+[S] to return it to the origin using “Cursor to World Origin”.

In Object mode, press [Z] to go to Wireframe view, and press [Shift]+[A] to select “Armature“.

Then, one bone will appear.

This bone can be moved and scaled just like an object.

We will use this first bone as the spine, so move it to the waist and adjust its size.

Most deformed characters and animal characters of about the third scale have one or two spines. In this case, I used two, so I adjusted the size to about half of the upper body.

Then, set the bones. In the current state, the bones are only visible in the wireframe view.

To make them visible in solid view, check “In Front” under “Viewport Display” in the Armature tab on the right menu.

 

From here, we will add more bones.

If you put the bone into edit mode by pressing [Tab] key, you can select the circle above and below the bone.

First, select the top circle and press the [E] key to push it out. Then a new bone will appear.

If you press the X/Y/Z keys immediately after pressing the [E] key, the bone will come out neatly in the direction you want it to go.

Repeat this process to increase the number of bones.

If you want to make the arms and legs symmetrical, go to Edit mode, select “Options” in the upper right corner of the 3D Viewport, and check “X-Axis Mirror“.

Press [Shift]+[E] when extruding.  

Now, add the bones as shown below. Please refer to the side view for the legs.

Associating the bones with the mesh

When you have finished inserting the bones, select Mesh > Bones, then press [Ctrl]+[P] and select “With Automatic Weights“.

Now you can associate the bones with the mesh.

Let’s check if the association is done properly. With the bone selected, switch to “Pose Mode” from the menu at the top left of the screen.

The color of the edge of the selected bone will turn light blue.

This state is called Pose Mode. You can create a pose by rotating the bones in Pose Mode.

Select the bone you want to move and rotate it with the [R] key.

If all the bones are rotated and the meshes are associated with all the bones, you are done.

 

However, in most cases, there is something wrong.

In this case, the eyes and nose did not follow the head bones well.

Adjust the weight of the bones

The reason why things go wrong is because some meshes and bones are not well associated.

The function to adjust this is weight painting.

Before you start, make sure that the name of the bone is displayed in the 3D Viewport. With the bone selected, click on the humanoid icon in the right menu, then go to Viewport Display and check Names.

Then, with the mesh selected, switch to Weight Paint from the upper left corner of the screen.

The mesh is now red or blue. The stronger the connection to the selected bone, the redder it will be, and the lower the connection, the bluer it will be.

Let’s look at the head bone. The head bone is named “Bone.003”, so select Bone.003 from the green inverted triangle icon in the right menu.

 

If you check, you will see that the eyes and nose are green. This is the cause of the problem.

We will fix this as soon as possible. In weight painting mode, you can adjust the weight of the mesh by painting it.

In this case, we will paint the eyes and nose, which are green, red.

You can adjust the paint settings from the menu above, where Weight is the weight adjustment, with 1 being stronger (red) and 0 being weaker (blue).

Set the Weight to 1.0 and paint the eyes and nose. It is easier to paint in wireframe view.

It may be difficult to paint the border between the nose and the face, but there is no need to worry about it.

After painting the weights, switch to Pose mode again and move the head.

The head is still not following the bones properly.

This is due to the fact that the eyes and nose have been painted with weights other than the head bone.

If you look at the weight status of Bone.002 (neck bone), you will see that the eyes and nose have been painted green as shown below.

This time, contrary to what we did earlier, we will fill the eyes and nose with Weight 0.0. 

 

Let’s check again in Pose mode.

 

Then, the eyes and nose now follow correctly.

Next article is here

I have shown you how to create and insert the bones manually, but in the next article I will show you how to use the ones that are already prepared for you.

In the next article, I’ll show you how to create an animation.

Please also see the following article on how to add bones in Blender (2.7) and run it in Unity.

http://maplesyrup-cs6.hatenablog.com/entry/2018/11/01/113345

Terms and shortcuts used in this article

Terms

• Armature: bones
• Pose mode: for moving the bones after associating the mesh with the bones
• Weight paint mode: a mode that allows you to associate a mesh with a bone and then see and edit which part of the mesh is associated with each bone.

Shortcuts

• [Ctrl]+[J]: Merge selected meshes
• Numeric keypad [5]: Parallel projection
• Numeric keypad [1]: Front view
• [Z]: Wireframe view
• [Shift]+[A]: Show Create menu
• [Shift]+[E]: Use to extrude bones symmetrically after X-axis mirror is checked.
• [Ctrl]+[P]: In this case, to associate the mesh with the bones.
• [Ctrl]+[Tab]: Pause mode when a bone is selected, and weight painting mode when a mesh is selected.   

Introduction to NEWVIEW SCHOOL ONLINE

NEWVIEW SCHOOL ONLINE is now open! Learn the basics of Unity and PlayMaker, necessary for creating VR/AR content, and learn the process (and creation techniques) for developing attractive content available on STYLY.

 

• Create VR/AR content without writing any programming code.
• Professionally supervised Unity courses available.
• Explore additional elements, such as photogrammetric production methods and content lightening.
• Learn the concept of creating VR/AR content.