Blender 3D Skateboard Rigging Tutorial

before we start this tutorial i just want to say this is not a complete beginner's tutorial you do need to have some basic knowledge of blender how to navigate in the viewport and how to switch between object mode and edit mode in pose mode and how to create basic shapes of course you will need a skateboard model to be able to follow along with this tutorial if you don't have one i do have a time-lapse modeling video that shows how i made this model there is also a rigging time lapse video if you don't have a lot of time to watch this tutorial there are time stamps in the description so you can skip ahead to the part that you're interested in and with that said let's go ahead and get started okay so to start it off we need to make a new collection so right click new collection to right click to change the color to green and let's minimize the geometry folder we don't need that and let's select the board itself and the two edges of each side in the center shift as closer to selected that way the pivot bone will be in the center of gravity of the board right so again with the armature collection selected shift a amateur single bone f2 to rename that armature skateboard tab g z and drag it all the way down okay and again f2 to rename that pivot center okay and now we want to create the tilt bone that will actually control just the the board itself so it will do this um rotation from side to side and to do that we want it to rotate from this point or this point in the in the center so what we will do is just select the face loop at the bottom of this metal plate come on and shift as cool so to selected back to the armature shift a g z again drag it drag it down and we want the the head of the bone to just be inside the pivot bone and name that tilt now we also want to make the bones for the front wheels and the back wheels so select either the the left wheel or the right wheel but don't put it in the middle so let's i'll shift left click to select the edge loop cursor to selected it need to be in the in the center of the wheel and now when we create another bone gz drag it down and we want the head to be below the board and name that wheels font we'll do the same thing for the back select the back wheel select the edge loop shift as cool so to select it to go to edit mode shift d to duplicate the front wheels bone and shift s selection to cuso rename that to wheels back this is how all the bones we need for the basic rig and now we are going to parent everything so select the wheels the suspension and the board select the armature control p with empty groups and now we are going to each part and delete the vertex group that we don't need for this one we just want the tilt bone tab to go to edit mode a to select everything and assign will do the same process for the other parts for the back wheels obviously we only need the back wheels vertex group a to select everything and assign font wheels just need the font vertex group a to select everything assign the suspension i'm going to parent for the pivot center for now but we'll delete it later on okay so delete all the other vertex group a sign same thing for the back sign and now we need to parent the the bones so in edit mode select the wheel bones and the tilt bone and paren them all to the pivot center keep offset control tab to go to pose mode and let's see that it's all working and tilt bone the will bone make sure they are working properly and this is our basic rig to make the rig a little bit more complex we want to add a few more bones to it so the first thing we want to do is to take the suspension geometry and clear the parent and delete the vertex group as well and to make the suspension bones we want it to be in the lower part of the suspension of the lower part of the shock absorber so the easiest way to do that would be in side view in x-ray mode just select the vertices on either side shift s go so to selected select the armature and create a new bone drag the head all the way down and rename that suspension font and then we can just duplicate and move it to the back again go to side view in xl mode select two vertices on either side cursor to selected and just duplicate the suspension bone shift s selection to cool so and rename that to suspension back okay now we need two more bones one for the pivot back and one pivot font and this is why we made the wheel bone in on the side and not in the middle so select the wheels shift s cursor to selected select the armature shift a create a new bone again drag it all the way down and name that pivot back we'll do the same thing in the front select the front wheel cool so to selected shift d to duplicate the pivot bone shift s selection to cool so f2 rename that pivot font we need one more bone shift s cursor to world origin shift a g z drag it all the way down below the tilt bone and this one will be the root bone it will control the entire leg and now we need to do some re-parenting so let's parent the front wheel to the front suspension keep offset the back wheel to the back suspension keep offset and of course the suspension and the tilt to be parented to the center pivot now the center pivot will be parented in a constraint to the front and the back pivot but for now we'll just select those pivots and parent them to the root bone and let's just check that everything is working fine control tab go to pose mode the will is okay the suspension is not okay because we need to parent the actual uh suspension geometry as well so select the suspension geometry select the rig and parent with empty groups once again we'll start with the front suspension we only want the suspension front bone so we can delete everything else and tab to go to edit mode a to select everything assign exactly the same thing in the back this time we want the back suspension bone shift a tab to go to edit mode a select everything and assign and now if we go control tab you can see that the suspension is working properly in the back as well and if we drag the center bone the wood bone it only control the two pivots for now but the center bone control pretty much the entire reagan will fix that in a moment but this is all the bones that we need for this rig in order to use the pivot points properly we need to create a pivot switcher and we are going to do that by using constraint and custom properties so first let's create our custom property let's go to the object properties at the bottom we have custom properties add and right now we can switch between 0 and 1 gradually with the decimal point so we can have values in between what we want to have is either 0 or 1 on and off switch so let's edit that name that pivot switch and the property value instead of 1.0 we need to change to change it to one and let's put the default on zero and press ok and now it's just zero or one and the idea is that zero will be the back pivot will control the rig and one the front pivot will control the rig let's turn it to one and right click on that copy data path we are going to need that so we are going to use now the center pivot and go to the constraint properties add constraint child off this is basically a apparent constraint so the target would be the armature and the bone would be the pivot back and let's name that child of back just so we don't get confused later on and now if we test we can see that the back pivot is controlling the rig we want to put a driver on the influence valve so if it's zero if the custom property is on zero the influence is one and if the custom property is on one the influence on zero for the front pivot it will be the other way around so right click on the influence and add driver show in driver editor scale it up first let's change the expression just val and we want to use single property the property will be the skateboard and the part will be the data path that we copied for the pivot switch one more thing we want to do is we want to go to the f curve and we want to reverse the the curve that we have so let's start with the top point the the right point we will change the value from one to zero and the other point from zero to one okay let's close that and see that it's actually working we can see that the influence is on one and again if we test the pivot bone we can see that it's working fine let's go to the custom property and change it to one and now it has no influence and so back to the center pivot we will do the same for the font once again add a child of constrained target is the amateur the bone is the pivot fault right now they are both on one which is not something we want so let's just copy the driver from child of back to child of font paste driver and name that to font now we're going to edit the driver so in driver editor hide the front one and again in the f curve we want to reverse the direction so one should be zero and zero should be one close that now we can see that the influence is different let's test it out back pivot has the control front pivot has no control and if we change the pivot switch to one the front pivot has the control in the back pivot has no control now to animate the wheels we can just take the bones and manually rotate them but it will be better to just create a an automatic system so that when we play the animation they will rotate without using any keyframes to do that we need to add another custom property and this one will be speed wheels font this one you can do with or without that decimal point and i will put the max to 10 in this case just to have more control and right click copy data path and let's change the rotation mode so let's change it from quaternion to xyz euler and we want to rotate on the x axis so right click add driver show in driver editor and press on the period key to zone to zoom in expression change to var and again we want single property property is the armature and paste the data path now we want to select this top point in the f curve we want to change the value to 180 let's close that for now and we can see that it made a difference if we drag it from one to zero we can see the custom property is now controlling our wheel but when we play the animation nothing is happening so let's go back to frame 1 and right click on that and copy the data path from this frame go back to edit driver and show in driver editor and in the drivers tab we want to add input variable this one we can call it time and instead of pop we want to click on the drop down and select scene and select the sim that we have data pad we paste our frame and now we want to multiply them so of our multiply time close that now if we play the animation nothing is happening because it's on zero but if we drag it it starts spinning and if you drag it some more it's spinning faster and it can go all the way up to 10 so let's drag it down back to zero and we'll do one for the back wheels so add speed wheels back again default to 0 and max to 10. copy the driver from the phone bone to the backbone again uh change the rotation to x y z euler on the x axis paste driver now edit the driver because instead of will's font we want to change it to wheels back and now we have separate controls for the back wheels and the front wheels at this point the rig is basically done and it's time to do the first clean up phase so let's start with the wheels the the back wheels we can just lock the location scale and rotation we only want the x rotation which is controlled by the custom properties we'll do the same for the wheels in the front just lock everything that we don't need so we don't use it by mistake the root bone is going to need everything the tilt bone only going to use the z rotation it's the local z uh the the bonds work in the local axis so it's going to be the the z axis for the rotation rather than the y axis so we are going to lock the location and scale but not the rotation for the rotation we are going to use a constraint a limit rotation constraint limit x y and z affect the transform and change it to local space now the value will be different for uh different skateboards uh depend on the dimensions that you have for mine i find it best on a 12.5 so that way when i look at it in front view it's getting close to the wheel without actually touching it and because we limited the x and y rotation in the constraint we don't need to lock them in the transform tab we'll do the same thing for the suspension we'll do z x y because zed is the access that we are going to rotate now you can just lock that completely i am going to give it a little bit of rotation in this case i'm going to put it into uh minus three and plus three so it has very little animation but still some just in case that it's needed and we'll do the same for the back suspension zx y lock the location lock the scale add constraint limit rotation limit x y z effect transform local space minus three and plus three okay now the center pivot i'm going to leave it on quaternion for now because that really depend on the animation so i'm just going to lock the scale for the pivot because we do need to move and rotate it also for the back pivot and the front pivot now let's make sure that all the bones are working fine let's do the root bone it's dragging everything and the pivot switch is on one so the front bone is controlling the rig if we change it back to zero the backbone is controlling the rig the tilt is working fine the wheels are working well we can't rotate them manually we have to use the wheel speed for that and this is the first cleanup done before we do the second cleanup phase we want to create some custom shapes so it will be easier to control the rig and that it will look nicer in order to do that we are going to use an add-on called orient bone shapes by scaredy fish you can get it for free on github a link to that is in the description you don't have to use it i just find it make things easier okay so now that you install the add-on we want to create let's go back to object mode and create a new collection this will be the custom shapes and i put it in brown and let's create a new circuit and go to top view scale it down [Music] and then scale it on the x axis and name that cs fluid this is the custom shape for the root bone so with the add-on enabled so we click on the custom shape shift click the armature control tab to go to pose mode select the bone that we want in this case the the root bone right click set and align bone shape okay and now we can just hide this custom shape and move on to the next one which is the bone tilt in edit mode select d the tail sorry select the detail shift s cursor to selected shift a circle size radius to fall and change it to 16 rotation 90 on the x-axis and in front view you're going to just drag it down and in edit mode we are going to select the top half and delete that a to select everything e to extrude then right click s to scale g zed and delete half of it then press a delete only faces then delete the edges in between select the top edge and extrude that up select the edges on either side extrude and right click s x to drag it out select the vertices at the top merge at center delete the faces only faces and then the inside edges mirror that and apply the middle this one will be cs tilt and just like we did with the root bone select the custom shape shift select the armature control tab to go to pose mode choose the bone that we need in this case the tilt bone right click set and align bone shape okay ctrl tab to go back to object mode and then shift d to the to duplicate this tilt and hide the original now we can do the suspension shape so click on the tail shift s cursor to selected select the custom shape shift s selection to cursor and let's scale it down name that cs suspension it will be for about the front the back and the front and shift select control tab select the bone that we want set and align bonus shape control tab to go to object mode go to edit mode in the armature select detail on the front suspension shift s corso to selected select i will custom shape shift as selection to cursor and exactly the same thing select the bone that we want set and align bone shape and now we can hide this now for the center pivot i'm going to click on the head shift as cursor to selected shift a uv sphere change it to four or two and let's change the segments and i'd use two segments and rings to eight and delete only faces shift select the armature select the center pivot set and align bone shape name that cs pivot center hide it now we are going to select the head of the pivot back so to selected shift a circle and in edit mode i'm going to select everything shift d r x 90 shift d r z 90 let's select everything and scale it down a little bit shift select the arm tool select the pivot back bone right click set and align bone shape and do the same for the font closer to selected select the circle that we made name that cs pivot and shift s selection to cursor then workout variable so shift s cool so to select it to the center of the object and origin to 3d cursor and now we can go back to the head of the pivot shift as selection to cursor and then set and align bone shape hide this and this is how we make the custom shapes for this model we don't have any custom shapes for the wheel bones and that brings us to the second and final cleanup so we are not going to be able to use the the wheel bones in the viewport we had the driver we made the custom properties for that so to clean it up we can just select the two wheel bones press m and then move it to another layer the second thing we can do to that is give that the custom shapes color and we do that in the object data properties under bone groups can select the root bone click on the plus sign assign that to the bone and let's make this one blue i like to name the groups based on the the color i will just call that one blue and then i will change that to custom color set and i will change that one to something more blue and i will give them all the same color and then this one will be slightly different so that way i know which one is selected and which one isn't now i will make a second group for the rotation bones so click on the plus sign assign and this one will be yellow so rename that custom color set and let's make them all the same color and this one will be slightly orange that way again easier to see which one i'm selecting one more group for the pivot bones click on the plus sign this one will be red and red one assign custom color set with the color picker make sure that they are all the same color and then this one slightly different and this this is our color coded rig now we still have two pivot bones and it can be a little bit confusing to figure out which one is the active pivot so we are going to make a driver to influence the visibility so in the pivot center bone we have the two child of constrained and we are going to use them so we are going to copy the driver from the child of font copy driver then go to the back pivot and under bone properties viewport display we have the hide function so we are going to right click on that and paste driver nothing happened just yet oh it did but we can't see it for now we'll see it in a moment go back to the pivot center copy the child off back copy driver go to the font pivot and again under bone properties viewport display hide right click paste driver and it disappeared if we go back to the pivot switch and change it from zero to one the back disappeared and the front one appear and now it's in control so whichever one is visible is controlling the lead this is basically all the clean up for the rig itself and i will do some cleanup for the scene so let's minimize the custom shapes folder and let's go to the selectable option we want to disable the selection on the geometry and we want to just completely disable the custom shapes we are not going to need it anymore it's just here for backup and then remove the selectable option that way we can't get to the geometry by mistake we also want to go to shift s and cursor to world origin to put it in the in the right place reset the timeline and that is our rig complete

Channel: Yogev3D

Views: 447

Keywords: #blender, #Yogev3D, #art, #3d

Id: BqmlqTHoNd0

Length: 45min 13sec (2713 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 24 2021