Create Dynamic Muscle Rigs In Blender 4.0

[@Mkaltered]

Bendy bones work well using stretch too constraint with a shape key driver added to the muscle to augment the flex tension

[@poopiecon1489]

PLEASEEEE DO MORE OF THESE PLEASE PLEASE

[@richstubbsanimation]

💪💪

[@AStoryWithLukeAnimates]

Great for science class

[@creativohugo]

I was just wondering how to make a wrist animation and your video appeared to me in the perfect timing

[@clumsypig8488]

This is a fantastic tutorial, thanks a lot for it! Question, how did you handle the shoulders? Can you write it step by step?

[@richstubbsanimation]

if you mean the muscles, they're the same as the other muscles. Just a b bone set up, nothing special or different going on :)

[@clumsypig8488]

@@richstubbsanimation thanks a lot!

[@Tinfoil.Hatter]

Thanks Rich, keep em coming... muscle rigging skills rare on net

[@adrianrock4610]

This is the next lvl o m g ! thanks for sharing... please more more !!! xD!

[@개인용-u8g]

엘라 생일을 축하합니다, 즐겁고 행복하게 성장하길 바랍니다

[@jucctin5243]

This is good stuff. I've been looking for a tutorial for muscle sims in blender for free. I want to ask, is the rigging of the muscles necessary? I'm trying to animate and model a big cat and I want to know If I can use the softbody (or cloth) sim on my muscles without rigging. have you tried that before? Rigging each individual muscles is quite the task, so I want to know if I should skip this step. Thanks

[@richstubbsanimation]

Thanks! Rigging every muscle gives you more control over all as not all muscles require heavy simulation. That being said, there is nothing stopping you from simulating the whole thing! (apart from needing a lot more computing power haha) 😁

[@jucctin5243]

@@richstubbsanimation Makes sense,. I'm not entirely sure but, muscle sims such as X -muscles and Ziva are completely simulations correct? And by what your saying, should I rig the strong stiff muscles and simulate the loose muscles? Thanks, I've been trying to get muscles sims for free and I think your video is literally the only one available right now, everything else related to blender is add-ons.

[@elliottotbc]

Hi Rich! I’m actually currently writing a paper on tail flexibility of a dinosaur. In this instance I believe that I will have to create 46 individual muscles per muscle group; M. longissimus, caudofemoralis, spinalis and ilio-ischiocaudalis and then connect them from each individual vertebrae to the legs, pelvis etc. do you know if this would be too much computing power? Also, with this amount of musculature, it would impede slightly on overall tail flexibility, is there a way in which I can add a restriction to overall tail flexibility using the muscles created? Thanks for any help you can provide and this video has already helped me loads!

[@richstubbsanimation]

My approach would be to only focus on the main/larger muscle groups for this. Generally these types of set ups are for simulating jiggle or fat moving, however since tails are usually very muscular it probably wouldn't make much sense to simulate any of it, and you could just rig these muscles with bendy bones and skip out the simulation. This would inevitably save on computing power. Hope this helps!

[@TwoBoltz63]

When I select the bone and add the Damped Track that works, but when I set the target in the track to be the corresponding locator the entire rig rotates off the mesh. Any ideas?

[@TwoBoltz63]

Aha, found it! My mistake was adding the constraint via the object constraints properties menu, where I should have been using the bone constraints properties menu just below it. That took way longer that it should have to solve =D

[@sarahwilkins8664]

Neat, will have to try and add this system to an alien skeleton I've been working on.

[@richstubbsanimation]

I would love to see it!

[@ShopDogProductions13]

Hi, I’m modeling a shark now. Is it possible to do this with an already fleshed out character, or does it only work for skeleton models? Thanks!

[@richstubbsanimation]

This approach works for anything!

[@ShopDogProductions13]

Thanks!

[@principedelapaz3593]

whay no ziva plugin in blender?

[@richstubbsanimation]

Long story short ziva has been purchased by a large vfx company, and now sadly will only be developing in house tools for DNEG.

[@principedelapaz3593]

@@richstubbsanimation 😢😢

[@S9universe]

and what about fat tissues and veins ?

[@richstubbsanimation]

Great Question! I left those out of this tutorial as that level of detail can get quite computationally expensive. However having said that, my approach for fat would be similar to the muscle set up, but instead of a cloth sim, a soft body may look better. As for veins/tendons animations, shapekeys may be the best bet. Either that or animatable normal maps like wrinkle maps. A quick google on how to set that up will get you on your way!

[@S9universe]

cool to know your approach though been researching for a few months muscles rigs and yours is pretty cool

[@arocomisgamusclademork1603]

pdf this video please. My head eyes confuse this video said

[@flrnGM]

Yeah ... this tutorial is a desaster^^ There are a bunch of cool insights into blender tools but this workflow is flawed conceptually. I mean you never made use of the bendy bones... didn't that strike you as odd? The fact that the cloth muscle looks like a rag didn't bother you? I would have thought one would go for a softbody simulation, where the volume is preserved and drive it's influence with the muscle bone's length, to realize a contracted/relaxed behaviour.

[@zetsubonokami9167]

my same thought, muscles are just too dense to be simulated with clothes; i did some experimentation and i have to say that softbody only feat the "squishiness" behaviour while the movement needs to be driven differently, my attempt at this was a mesh deform cage since a very simple mesh can be used to drive the path

[@ektorthebigbro]

great tutorial but way too much work for a full skeleton and also not physically accurate, for that you need houdini

[@richstubbsanimation]

Houdini comes with a heafty price tag

[@4pelokananasov992]

​@@richstubbsanimation Isn't it free?

[@richstubbsanimation]

@@4pelokananasov992 No, although after taking a look they now do an "Apprentice" Lisence which is for non commercial work only. The apprentice lisence is free

[@4pelokananasov992]

@@richstubbsanimation yeah, that's what I was thinking about

[@MichelHabib]

with Houdini, you need a workstation worth tens of thousands of $$ to do muscle/tissue/skin simulation, plus you need to learn huge complex vellum workflow, with little to no video tutorials out there. It is the most accurate but yet the most complex of all.