Book Image

Blender 3D By Example

Book Image

Blender 3D By Example

Overview of this book

Table of Contents (17 chapters)
Blender 3D By Example
Credits
About the Authors
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

Custom shapes


Now that our rigging is almost finished, we can opt for custom shapes. These are 3D objects that can replace the usual look of bones. The purpose is primarily aesthetic, but functional as well. We can make bone shapes that will go around the mesh and allow us to uncheck the X-ray option. Also, it will allow us to manipulate bones more easily.

We can hide the bones that do not require manipulation, such as the arms that are in fact only controlled by HandIK.L and HandIK.R.

To implement a custom shape, we must first to create a form, usually from a circle. We are going to make the custom shape of the Neck bone together and let you do the rest as this is very repetitive:

  1. We will add a circle (eight sides is enough) to the scene (press Shift + A and select Mesh | Circle).

  2. In the Edit Mode, we will select the opposite vertices on the Y axis, and we will connect them (J). This connection in the custom shape allows us to visualize the orientation of the bone better.

  3. We will rename this...