Animating with Blender

Another Rigging Example: The Fingers

The mother’s fingers (as well as the Beast’s fingers and toes) are a good example of the kind of approach you will need to take when creating controls and helpers. Physically, fingers are complex, and the fact that there are five on each hand makes it a tough subject for animators. What is needed, then, is a fairly simple set of controls that can drive the more complex structure of fingers.

In Figure 9.23, you can see both the control and helper bones for the mother’s fingers. Each finger is controlled by a single bone. When the controller is scaled, the finger curls. When it is rotated, the finger rotates. This is accomplished with the following technique:

• An IK chain is created, with a bone for each segment ...