Rigging the Female Nude With Blender: Hips/Pelvis

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This portion of the course is the second-most-complex of the series. It involves such constructs as the gluteus, adductor, muscles and tendons on the outside of the thigh, a bit of thigh squishing when the calves are pressed into the back-side of the leg, and the muscles and tendons on the front-top side of the leg.

Lesson Sessions

20p left 20p right Because of the complexity of this joint, this lessons is broken up into about 9 sessions.

  1. (33m4s) Free Technical Overview: Hierarchy and Relationships
  2. (7m48s) Preparation and Impetus - Deleting bones to get to basic rig with Thigh Twist Bone setup and Fake FK, demonstrating why the basic rig is insufficient.
  3. (24m50s) Thigh Front/Top - The 4-bone stretch-to traveling hip bone (front of pelvis) setup.
  4. (12m45s) Thigh Front/Top Continued - What to do for the splits, the compromise between “legs out” and “legs forward.”
  5. (18m19s) Gluteus Main - Setting up the gluteus Main, Inner, and Outer bones, inner “hold position/rotation” setup, and constraints.
  6. (14m47s) Gluteus Main - Drivers. See the section below for the formulas.
  7. (27m24s) Thigh Outer - The 3-bone stretch-to setup with rotation copying on the stretch target.
  8. (25m19s) Thigh Inner, Adductor - The 2-bone adductor/pubic mound stretch-to setup with drivers for thigh squish.
  9. (11m10s) Genitals - Basic deformation to follow legs as they move. As the setup is so simple, just an overview.

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Bone Hierarchy

Here is the Hierarchy of the hips/pelvis rig:

  • ctrl-COG
    • ctrl-fakeFKhip.L,R
  • def-tailbone
    • ctrl-pubicRegionSizing <–genitals topmost parent
      • def-pubicMound.L,R
    • def-hip.L,R
      • mch-gluteusInnerStay.L <–part of GLUTEUS
      • mch-hipTendonStretchTarget.L,R <–part of THIGH FRONT
      • mch-hipFollowsTendon.L,R <–part of THIGH FRONT
        • def-hipBone.L,R <–part of THIGH FRONT
      • ctrl-thigh.L,R
      • def-thighUpper.L,R
        • def-hipSideCorrect.L,R <–part of THIGH OUTER
        • def-hipFrontCorrect.L,R <–part of THIGH FRONT
        • def-adductor.L,R
        • mch-gluteusRotator.L,R <–part of GLUTEUS
      • def-thighLower.L,R
      • ctrl-gluteus.L,R <–part of GLUTEUS
        • def-gluteus.L,R <–part of GLUTEUS
          • def-hipBoneBack.L <–part of THIGH OUTER
          • def-gluteusInner.L,R <–part of GLUTEUS
          • def-gluteusOuter.L,R <–part of GLUTEUS

Gluteus Drivers

Here are the drivers for the gluteus from Verachantesse, which we will tweak slightly for Monette:

  • X location == max(0, -1 * (max(0,rotx)/25 - thighRot/120))
  • Y location == -1 * (max(0,rotx)/30 - thighRot/95)
  • Z location == (max(0,rotx)/25 + thighRot/95)
  • X Scale == 1 + rotDiff / 12
  • Y Scale == 1 - rotDiff / 8

Generally speaking, X, Y, and Z location you change the “rotx” division depending on how much the gluteus is acting incorrectly when the leg is rotated back, and you change the “thighRot” division depending on how much it’s acting incorrectly when the leg is rotated forward or to the side.

Educational Offerings

20p left 20p right We have two offerings. The first is a ~30-minute free technical overview video. This includes all the bones, their relationships, constraints, drivers, and some discussion. The second is a multi-hour multi-session lesson where we place all the bones from scratch.

The free technical overview uses Princess Verachantesse as the subject, but the session will be done with Monette Taida.