Auto-Rig Pro: Wing Rig Tutorial [Blender]

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This is an overview of the Wing Rig in Auto-Rig Pro. The guide shows how to rig and animate a complex wing with separate feathers.
It also covers how to achieve a good folded wing pose.
Based on that folded pose, Auto-Rig Pro can automate the creation of Action constraints which easily bring the wing in the folded or unfolded position with a simple rig control.
Soon I will also release a full step-by-step guide for rigging an entire Bird model (check this playlist for availability).

0:00 Bird Wing with Auto-Rig Pro
0:23 Base Bird Rig
1:04 Wings
2:04 Basic Skinning
2:50 Feathers
9:12 Mirror Feather Bones
10:09 Feather Weight Binding
11:57 Wing Folding
15:17 PRO TIP: tweak Wing constraints

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[hazdrubal]

Wow, this is very much needed video! I basically have given up on my Crane model animation because I just couldn't figure this all out. Thank you for posting.

[valleybrook]

Finally a bird ARP rig! There is no tutorial on this so it defintely fills a gap

[CalendarMe]

I wanted to add a note about setting up the feather bones and feathers so that they fold more easily using just the main controls. It took me a long time to figure this out, so maybe it can be helpful to someone else. First, make each feather a separate object. It's VERY helpful to name each feather the same thing as its corresponding bone (this also makes assigning weights easier). It's also helpful to group feathers in folders by layer. Lay out the feathers the way they'll attach to the wing. They'll overlap a bit horizontally. Make sure they're all flat and at the same height--you can select all of them then use s+z+0 to zero on the z axis.

Now, you want to stagger the feathers so there's a tiny bit of verticle space between them. I used .1 mm. The last hand feather of bottom row will be in the lowest position. The first arm feather of the top row will be in the highest. I have three rows of 22 feathers each, so my stack of feathers is 3.25 mm thick, with none of them overlapping vertically. Now you want to match the bones exactly to each of the feathers. If you've staggered the feathers properly, none of the bones will overlap at all, and they should all be level.

Then give each feather the full weight of its corresponding bone. If you've named them the same, you can select the feather, go to object data properties, add a new vertex group, copy and paste the feather name, then select the whole feather and assign the weight.

Now when you go to pose, the feathers (mostly) won't intersect with each other. There may be a few you have to adjust, but for the most part, the wing folds beautifully!

[andycepi]

amazing tutorial, thank you for all your work!

[mix-up]

Awesome, I have been waiting forever for a good feater rigging tutorial can't wait to see the whole thing.

[AhmadHassan-hgtf]

i hate rigging then i discover your channel its feel like allah accept my pray and send you to me brother ammazing tutorials even amazing channel

[julianramirez]

Very nice tutorial!!! Your videos are all high quality and well explained. I've been trying to use Auto Rig Pro for all my projects now, but i've ran into a problem, I'm can't add custom bones for hair and clothes, I have tried everything, adding bones in Edit Reference Bones, naming them correctly, making sure they are on the controller layer instead of the reference layer, and setting it as Custom Bones in the export tab, but I can't get the to follow the arms and head bones, same if I want to create a cloak or a cape. Strangely, I was able to do it before without reading the documentation, so I know its possible. Anyways, thank you for this tutorial!

[sandalosalvaje]

Hi CGDive! I'm a big fan of your content, it helped me improve my rigging skills A LOT. I bought AutoRigPro a few days ago and I was wondering if its possible that you make a tutorial on how to rig a very stylised character, with a lot of squash and stretch (I'm trying to achieve Hotel Transylvania style). I want to learn about the Sticky lips function or how to curl the lips, but I couldn't find good tutorials. Thank you very much! Have an amazing day!

[activemotionpictures]

Feather controls, so nice! is 9:56 an ARP function only? Or it can also be done with Rigify?

[wallawalla]

Oh man I've been waiting for your next FaceIt video but THIS is amazing and I'm super excited for the more in depth tutorial. I have some bird/avian characters I've been dreading having to make so this is insanely helpful.

[raphaelguitarx]

YEII ANOTHER HELPER TOOL <3 Hope I can get some info to do like a mini tutorial like last time :p

[wguillaume]

Thank for another awesome tutorial, would you be willing to do an overview of BlendRig 6?

[WillFalcon]

Thank you. Can you utilize bird rig to animate dragon wing? Folding etc..

[Gmodderable]

Love the content! I was just wondering if you have done a tutorial in the past covering combining animations? 😀

[hazdrubal]

One more thing, is it better for the feathers to be one sided planes or thick rectangles?

[HaroonD]

diff b/w Auto rig pro and rigify?
which one to consider for making rigs in game pipeline or Production pipeline ??

[hhzyk]

Great totorial!! Sorry to borther you but may i know why my bone failed to control a single feather like you do ? i do the same as you all along the operation but the feather control turned out to control nothing.😭😭

[brunoeschenazi]

I was following the tutorial, but I haven't found the model base file (pigeon)... ther's only a "bird" on the folder, which is the base of another tutorial....

[darkman]

Does the bird armature works for Dragon ?
Dragon with wings and legs and arms..?

[tatumigwen]

I’m sorry to bother you.I would be very grateful if you could answer this question for me. I used blender’s autorig pro to retarget a game character’s animation, but after importing it into Unreal Engine, the root motion was lost. If you could provide some ideas or methods, I would appreciate it very much.