Blender Beginner Part 05

Step 135

The bones work right now, however, the rig(armature) still needs to be skinned(attached) to the mesh. Select the busey_mesh in Object mode. In the Editing Context(F9) go to the Modifier panel. Select Add Modifier>Armature.

Step 136

Now there is an Armature modifier. In the armature object section type Ob:skeleton. This will tell the skeleton armature bones to control the busey_mesh. Press the Envelopes button so that envelopes are turned off. We will not go over envelope attachment of bones in this tutorial.

Step 137

Even though the mesh is attached(or parented) to the armature we need to tell which bones will attach to a part of the mesh. In this skinning process we will use weight painting. Select the skeleton armature and go to Pose mode.

Step 138

Make sure that at least one of the bones is selected in Pose mode. Select the Busey object. This will take you back to Object mode with the busey_mesh selected.

Step 139

Go to Weight Paint mode.

Step 140

Weight painting is used to paint the influence of bones to the mesh. Before weight painting, go to the Editing Context(F9) and the Paint panel. Change the following settings: Opacity 1.0, select Add, select Wire.

Step 141

Right click on the head bone. Paint on the face. Notice that the face turns red.

Step 142

Press R. Each red part(red being the strongest amount of influence) will move. Paint as much as you can see. Don't forget to rotate.

Step 143

If rotating isn't working when you want to paint parts you can't see, let the rotated bone stay in place. Paint the face. The mesh will move to the bone.

Step 144

Paint all the parts you want influence. Constantly rotate the bone to see if the bone rotation looks right. Press alt+R. Select Clear Rotation.

Step 145

This will move the bone back to the proper place.

Step 146

I accidentally painted parts of the busey_mesh I didn't want the head bone to move. To un-paint those parts. Select the Sub button in the Paint panel. Paint over unwanted areas.

Step 147

Sometimes you have to move the bone in awkward ways to find all of the faces/vertices to paint. I also pressed Z to change the viewport shading of the bones for this part.

Step 148

Weight paint all the areas to your satisfaction. Please note that this model/rig is not the ideal setup for weight painting. However, it will show how weight painting works. With all of the painting finished go to Object mode.

Step 149

RMB select on the armature. If you are not already in Pose mode go to Pose mode.

Step 150

Move the bones to the a desired position. If you do not like your pose reset all of the bones by pressing A once to deselect the bones. Press A again to select all of the bones and press alt+R to clear the rotation.

Step 151

If the wireframe is being displayed on the mesh and you would like to hide it, go to Object Context(F7) and the Object Buttons Sub-Context. In the Draw panel press the Wire button.

Step 152

If you would like to hide the bones again, select the armature and turn off X-ray in the same Draw panel. Also in object mode parent the armature to the platform so that the platform can move both Busey object and his armature. Save your file as Room07.blend