How Can I Animate Skinned Mesh R15 in Blender And Import Into Studio?

[Harisaiyo]

My game currently uses the Anime Male (Skinned Mesh from Rig Builder). I currently animate in Studio but I want to change my workflow and animate in blender. I cannot find any resources on this so I did some digging.

I noticed in the resources page contain Blender template files for character rigs. The one specifically Im using are the R15 Anime Boy from Rig Builder (see screenshot below). But I dont think they are fully animation ready. It seems like they are modeling references for UGC items, clothing, hair, gear, static items, cage wraps etc but lack IK and constraints that make animation easier.

So I continued to search and I found this old article that was hard to find. It has the R15-Mannequine-Rig which shows how to Export Animations using Maya. Since Mayas is not free I opt for Blender. I downloaded a maya trial to inspect it. This file has and bone constraints and IK constraints. I exported the FBX but unfortunately these constraints are not supported in the FBX format and are not directly used by Blender. I know blender has their own IK system (but I have no idea how to set it up similarly).

Here is the R15-Mannequine-Rig within maya (the right side shows constraints)

. If anyone is interested here is the resulting FBX file exported from Maya so it could be opened in Blender.
R15-Mannequin-Rig.fbx (1.5 MB)

I have no idea how to setup bone and IK constraints within blender. Does anyone know if Roblox themselves provide an animation ready humanoid template to create animations in blender with? I was hoping to export the animations then import them into roblox without the character skin so animations can be applied to any R15. But I’ve failed this many times in the past.

How are people getting around this?

[Hazelfluff]

Is there a special reason you need to make the animations with a skinned mesh? Couldn’t you make the animations with a non-skined one? They should still work as long as both the rigs are r15

[Harisaiyo]

Just to get a better preview of how the animation looks like. With skinned I can get more accurate animations but this is not a hard requirement. Im open to animating without one., I tried these because these are official Roblox resources I came across.

Is there a .Blend file that I should be using instead (hopefully with bone rigged and IK constraints)?

[Harisaiyo]

@Hazelfluff would the "R15 Rig and Attachments" be sufficient for making animations and then importing them into studio via >Import Animation>FBX File?

[Hazelfluff]

Considering that is is a rig, it should be. I recommend testing it first with a small animation to make sure it works!!

However… I found this and it might just be what your looking for

GitHub - TK-DZ/Roblox-IK-R15: A rig to make much easy to animate using...

Correct IK

How do i set up inverse kinematics for a roblox rig in blender?

(Sorry for my bad english) When setting up an IK constraint on a rig in blender first of all, import your rig (obviously) You need the Roblox Blender plugin And the Roblox rig Blender add-on [image] Next, Press N and this will show up [image] press RBX Animations on the left [image] Now your rig is done! Next is the IK Constraints [image] Go to pose mode and select a bone [image] And on the left press “Create IK Constraints” [image] Pressing this button will make a UI pop up, d…

How do I add IK constraints to my r15 blender rig?

I’m currently trying to animate with an r15 roblox rig in blender, its going well so far, i just dont know how to use ik constraints. i tried putting ik constraints on the feet so they wouldnt moove but i just coulnt figure it out. i used the blender importer/exporter roblox plugin. i know that it has a built in ik constraint feature, yet i have no idea how to use it or how to use ik constraints…

[Harisaiyo]

Thanks for the reply. I’ve submitted an issue asking whether the guide would apply to the Anime Mesh Rig to which the author said it would not work. Id have to use a Bone Setup (which I detailed and attempted below). I made a test animation but something is off.

I attempted to animate the R15RigAndAttachments Template with a small test Idle animation. I then exported as FBX using Blender configs below (loosely following this Export Maya guide to replicate settings in Blender). I also followed this specific Blender Export Guide for settings to reference.

In AnimationEditor seletced Import>From FBX Animation. The animation imports but the playback is incorrect. Rather than standing in idle the character offsets and rotation are not correct.

Update: I do notice their template uses HumanoidRootNode but according to this guide the Hierarchy and Bone Name convention for should be HumanoidRootPart. I renamed the bone, exported and reimported but still arrived at the same issue.

[Hazelfluff]

have you checked for issues with the rotations? (have you applied all transforms?)

also…
Couldn’t you just make the anime rig an ik rig?

How To Add Inverse Kinematics + Switch To Roblox Rigs (Blender)

also, do you think it would make a difference if you only referenced the Blender Export guide? (or have you tried that already)