[Blender] Add Accessories to VRM Avatar

Introduction

In this article, I will explain how to add accessories to the VRM avatar with Blender.

If you are new to Blender, please refer to the following articles. They will help you to create an accessory easily.

 

 

Let’s Start Making an Accessory

Import VRM to Blender

Please refer to the following article to learn how to import VRM files to Blender.

 

Add Accessories

In this tutorial, I will assume you have already created an accessory to add on to your 3D model.

In my example, I will to put on these ‘pretty’ panda hair clips onto my avatar.

 

First, move the accessory to where you want to add it.

 

Now we attach it to the avatar. There are two ways to do this:

① Set by ‘bone weightings’

② Use the parent-child relations

This time I use the parent-child relations (②). I will explain about ① another time.

 

First, select the accessory. Now, you can set the parent-child relations with ‘Parent’ (③) in the ‘Relations’ (②) section on the ‘Object’ tab (①).

 

As we want to attach it to a bone instead of a mesh, set the Parent’s object type to ‘skeleton’.

Once you’ve selected ‘skeleton’, you can select bones.

 

Set the drop-down at the middle to ‘Bone’. It allows you to select an individual bone.

 

Next, select the bone that you want to set as the parent. As it’s a hair clip, I selected the bone in the head.

 

Then, the hair clip ‘jumps’ to somewhere unexpected. Earlier we had the hair clip positioned, but this will change.

This is because the object, which was on the world coordinates, is now on the coordinates relative to the parent you specified.

In other words, the origin has been changed with the values of the coordinates unchanged (Parent dominates…)

 

So you need to correct the position again.

Do the same for the other one. Then select the armature and switch to the pose mode (※). Now, let’s move the parent bone.

They should move accordingly as shown below.

Lovely!

 

※The selected bone turns light blue by pressing ‘Ctrl+Tab’ with the armature selected. This state is called ‘Pose mode’ where you can change the pose by rotating bones.

 

Export and Upload to STYLY

Now that you’ve successfully attaching the accessories, let’s try to export them!

There are two ways to export VRM.

① Export as FBX

② Link to Unity

I explain both but I prefer the second ② way.

① Export as FBX

VRM has already had various settings applied. It means the added parts won’t reflect those settings.

So, when you use the model as a VRM, you need to export as FBX first, and then import it to Unity and convert it into VRM.

Please refer to the following article to learn how to do this.

https://styly.cc/tips/blender-vrm-export1/（Coming soon）

 

② Link to Unity

You can import a Blender file (.blender) to Unity directly.

In this way, Unity immediately reflects what is modified in Blender, so you don’t need to export the model each time you make a fine adjustment to the position of the accessories, etc. I was shocked at how convenient this way was.

Please refer to the following article to learn how to do this.

https://styly.cc/tips/blender-vrm-export2/（Coming soon）

 

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