3D Rigging is Beautiful, Here's How It Works!

Rigging is the key to making a 3D character ready to animate, but everyone finds it so intimidating. Even I was afraid of it at first. But now I find it beautiful, so I want to show you how it works!
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Video by David Oneacre

Music by Jayfoo

Made with the help of Jellybox Studio!
Producer: Sean Aitchison
Voice Over Editing: Clem
Special Thanks to Gene Goldstein

Gimberly uses kamone's toon shader, which you can find here:

Rigging reels shown at the end:
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0:00 Intro
0:36 Skeletons
3:32 Skinning
7:13 Controls
12:19 Outro

[doodleyd]

This one took a while! Nearly 4 months of work and almost 12 minutes of raw animation, lots of overnighters.
I refuse to add sponsors to educational videos, but since this video took longer than expected, it pushed out a December video that was sponsored.


Patreon lets me make what I want to make without relying on sponsors, and makes situations like that way less scary. That said, if you're a college student scraping by, it's okay. Ultimately I'll be fine, just wanted to be realistic.

I hope you like the video. Thank you for the support as always!

[cartooncrazy]

I studied basic 3D modelling and rigging in school and this video basically covers pretty much all the basic points in rigging, including some of the more technical things like controls and skin weights. This video helpfully explains these concepts in a fun visual manner.

One point I'd like to emphasise on is joint orientation. You want to make sure that the joint orientations are set up correctly before you parent/connect them together, or otherwise it will create a lot of issues like not pointing in the right direction. Rigging was a huge pain because I didn't know how to properly deal with the weirdly rotating fingers and feet, so it definitely takes quite some practice.

[nddragoon]

these kids and their fancy schmancy rigging software have it so easy. back in my day we animated by manually moving every single vertex in the model by hand, uphill both ways, through the snow, and we liked it!

[cool_dasher]

I love how expressive the characters are! like in 2:28 Gimberly is like "Come on not again..."

[ElGamerDesafortunado]

I'm a videogame and animation student and all you said was 4 months of classes summarized incredibly well in less than 15 minutes!! Also, I love the way you explain and how everything looks in your videos! <3

[firenzarfrenzy]

Just a few weeks ago I was watching one of my artist friends rig a VTuber model for another friend. I was on the discord call thinking "how do you navigate this... mess" I remember seeing those spheres and stretched pyramids. Those lines and vertices, those heat spectrum looking colours.
After watching this, I feel educated. It's that feeling you get that I can only describe as when you're doing this boring math at school like trig and you're confused. Then a math youtuber comes in and breaks it down and you suddenly understand all these connections. Why pi divided by this number is special. How triangles relate to circles.
In the same way, you have done that for me. It still looks like a lot to navigate sure, but understanding that this image means X thing now, feels good. 3D rigging is indeed beautiful. Just like math. All it takes is someone to help you understand it and let it finally... click!

[IdioticRandmz]

7:12 "What do you mean don't say that part out lou-" got me dying.

[m.i.g.]

As 3d rigging, i can confirm this is how i work

[hilariousskullnamedcatzo]

I can finally sleep in peace knowing why the banana was made Epic video as always Doodley

[antoniobordonhos]

These videos are so helpful. Everytime i start a blender project it can be so confusing or demotivating when you get to a step you dont understand. Your helping to make everyone have more fun creating art!

[madlemonred]

i studied this at school almost two years ago and ngl, it was traumatizing, super complex. but last year i made peace with 3D animation and discovered that i love rendering and animating. but now, after watching this video, i got curious about rigging again…

[Birdofthetacklebox]

It amazes me on how much effort you put into your videos in a pretty short timeframe! They’re super helpful and easy to understand. Plus it’s fun watching Gimberly do stuff.

[Alvarito_El_Payasito]

3:48 I love how Doodley's hair is actually part of his skull.

[gambilious]

"With all that in mind, lets talk about SKINNING."

- Doodley

[Dasher...]

I don't care I have 5 exams tomorrow, if Doodley uploads a new video, I WATCH IT 🗣️🗣️🗣️

[NINGENoo]

This is the best channel for 3d animation learning. Hands down

[Queen_Coda]

I recently commissioned a 3D model to use in my videos and I was SUPER confused about what the controls did, but seeing you talk about the ik/fk switch and showing the gears and the arrows as well as the hip rigging REALLY helped clear it up as my model has all of those. Thanks Doodley! You're doing wonders for the animation community

[SwordsArt]

It’s always a good day when Doodley uploads a video.

[StarDustel]

As a professional Rigging TD, im gonna say well done on deconstructing this process in a digestible way! I will be showing those outside the Industry this video when they ask about my job ❤

[roadkill.highway]

8:01
“you could literally use a banana if you wanted, i’m not a cop.”

sounds like something a cop would say