Animating with Blender

Building the Rig in Layers

There are several reasons to build your rig in discreet steps and sections as presented here. First, it provides a clean interface during animation. There will be quite enough going on when you are keyframing your characters’ motion that you won’t be able to afford any clutter. Second, it allows you to refine both the deformers and the helpers throughout your production, even after you have begun animation.

Let’s take a look at the controls, helpers, and deformers for the mother character from The Beast while we discuss some rigging practices.