Free characters and rigs

free characters and rigs
By Sandra gilbert.

Modeling and rigging characters is a time consuming task, one that takes a lot of practice and study todo get just right, and while most of us Will get there eventually, it is nice todo be able todo just Grab a ready made character for study. Whether todo study the design and rigging itself or for further study of animation techniques and tests of said información. And there is always the just for fun factor todo be considered todo. Following is a list of fun characters and rigs built and contributed by various members of the Blender community for your study and enjoyment.
1) blenrig 1.2 created by Juan Pablo Bouza
Blenrig is a humanoid Rig for Blender 2.44 (or higher) based on Bones deformation. The main purpose of this Project is todo make a Rig that is Shape Key free. Ive developed a somewhat complex skeleton system based on diferent types of constraints in order todo achieve realistic deformation Even in the most extreme poses. In addition todo this, blenrig comes with a complete facial animation system rig.

There are two diferent rigs (blenrig 1.2 and cartoon blen- Rig v1.2) available, as well as a blenrig manual and blen- Rig essential tips document. Versión 2.0 due todo be released april/may.

Im planning todo reléase blenrig 2.0 along with a short film im currently working on. All i have todo say is that there Will be some really nice sorpresas when it comes out. Well, ive done a Little video showing up what blenrig 2.0 Will be introducing.

English.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=abwsmjxgnt8
http://video.google.es/videoplay?
(download the IPod versión for higher definition).

Spanish.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=gj3qnxyv75s.
2) Bunny character created by wodman5k
He is rigged for animation, with an emphasis placed on facial animation and controls.
3) cutebear 0.03 created by Tommy gard helgevold (joongle)
Fully poseable 3d character. In order todo position fet properly, Grab the constraint in front of the fot with your mouse (and g), and ensure you have the whole screen todo move the pointer around, this Will ensure full flexibility of the IK chain. Arms move naturally around his body and have new límites and new stifness values, some hack were done in order todo bypass the original intended (lógical) IK functions.in order todo make it look more natural. (nit-picking.you know).
3) impressive rigs with actions available created by thesudahlah
The rigs include a humanoid figure, a 4 legged dog creature and a 6 legged robotic insect. Each character has a series of actions including walk Cycles, running, fighting, jumping, etc. So you can mix and match the actions, blending them todo create your own animation. You can se the included actions on : http://www.youtube.com/user/yagapayanata or download at : http://uploader, polorix.net//files/235/looping, mov.
4) leg rig by Daniel Martínez Lara
A simple but great leg rig. It uses very few handles (only around 2-3) without compromising the functionality Even the slightest. Daniel a los did a quik Little demo video that shows how the Rig enables quik rearrangement of the pivot point of the fot/leg.
5) ludwig: character and Rig v1.0 created by Jason Pierce.
ludwig is a fully rigged and animation ready character for Blender. His features include IK/FK arms, stretch and Squash head and Spine, and a Voice-O-Matic ready face controlled by a custom UI. Ludwig was created todo provide the Blender community with a high-quality humanoid Rig and todo promote Blender as a character animation tool.
6) Mancandy collection created by Bassam Kurdali
Star of popularly acclaimed Mancandy faqs DVD. A fully rigged and ready todo animate character. All 3 versións of Mancandy are available for download and study.
7) mouse rig: by clean3d.
clean3d has created a fun Little rigged character todo experiment with.
Otto: by virgilio vasconcelos
Otto is based on the techniques demonstrated at the Blender conference. One of the most impressive stretch rigs out there. Includes facial controls.
9) petunia robot: by Macouno
Petunia the Little Monkey robot was created for use in the 2007 Blender conference Suzanne Awards. Petunia is fully rigged and instructions are available on how todo use and animate him.
10) Richi the gecko by Jonathan lax.
gecko animation limited would like todo present the Richi gecko Rig as a download for the Blender community. It is a fun and simple Rig that includes blend shapes for the animation of Richi facial expressions. In addition, this blend file contains the compositing node setup used for the post-processing of the animation.
11) red-nelb.04 by Daniel Martínez Lara.
currently versión 0.4, that means: 1) it not ready for production. 2) its missing some standard features like FK in arm/leg (currently IK), stretchy, etc. A complete rebuild of arms and legs is in the works. So, use at your own Risk. Red-nelb is a excuse todo test and implement rigging concepts, in this versión the focus is todo use the minimum of controls in the viewport without losing functionality.
12) rigged character: Suzanne by Michael thoenes
Rigged Blender character based on Blender Suzanne Monkey head primitive object (or is that primate objectí).
13) squek by wim claes.
a Little Bird-like creature, todo learn the basic of Blender animation tools.

So there you go, a nice Little library of fully rigged characters todo play with todo your hearts content. Why are you still sitting there? Go get them.

By Sandra gilbert. www.blenderart.org.