Hey yall!
I put together a cool R6 rig for animating in Blender and I figured I’d share it here for anyone who might find it useful since the amount of R6 rigs with both FK and IK on the DevForum are lacking, so I wanted to make the only one you’ll ever need.
It supports both IK (Inverse Kinematics) and FK (Forward Kinematics), and you can blend between them with sliders.
It has full support for animating tools and any props attached to the rig using the Cautioned weapon exporter on version 2.4.2+ of the plugin.
This REQUIRES Cautioned’s Blender Animations plugin and works on version 4.2+, not every feature on the plugin has been tested:
- Review: Roblox Animations Importer/Exporter — Blender Extensions
- Releases · Cautioned/Blender-Animations-Plugin · GitHub
Stuff the rig can do
- IK + FK support for arms and legs.
- Torso influence for arms and legs.
- Settings to switch between IK/FK and Grabbing.
- Head follow: Forces the head to look at a certain object.
- Grab Points: For grabbing onto stuff like a door handle.
- Very intuitive torso rotation, with UpperTorso, Spine, and LowerTorso all contributing to their own movement.
- Built-In plugin for a panel that lets you change Settings and have shortcuts for customizing a rig
Update V2.2:
- Removed Anchor Points entirely and anything related to them
- Added official support for the Cautioned weapon exporter built into the blend file and version 2.4.0 of the blender animations plugin
- Completely redesigned the internal rig as well as completely fixed all sources of unintentional offset of the rig, previously, the “rest” pose would actually have positions in studio as small as 0.001 studs or even almost half a stud, this made requirements for super accurate rigs impossible, this is now fixed entirely and what you see in blender is 1:1 with what you see in studio.
Quick Update V2.21:
- Added Torso Influence on the arms that ignore all transforms when zero
- I tried to add 2 sliders for rotation and position but due to the IK target of the arms following the torso and requiring to follow the torso, having no rotation influence but position is basically impossible, it is possible however on FK mode only by turning off Inherit Rotation on the FK bone that you animate on.
This rig is now designed to be completely compatible with Cautioned’s weapon exporter and you should be using that for all weapons, tools, or props that you wish to be animated by the rig.
This rig is not beginner friendly however it’s not extremely complicated, you need some knowledge with other Blender R6 rigs as well as general Blender knowledge, this rig is much easier to understand compared to other versions.
Versions
Working
- Blender V4.5.6 LTS
- Blender V4.5.7
Probably Not Working
- Blender V5
(Let me know if the rig works on a different version not showed above so I can add it to this list)
Files:
Blender (V2.2):
Blender R6 Rig.blend (4.1 MB)
Roblox Studio (V2.2):
Studio R6 Rig.rbxm (9.2 KB)
Tutorials
Adding props/tools
Adding tools that the rig can hold is a simple process and can be used on any rig with the tool connected properly.
When you’ve got the rig in blender, you should make your way to Roblox Studio, then you should import any R6 rig, it is not required that you use the Studio Rig I provided for this process.
Go into Roblox Studio and take your tool, then position it on the R6 rig you have on any limb, including the torso and the head.
Then, you must rig the tool you added to the limb you wish to connect the tool to, for this tutorial, I’ll be using a Sword and the Right Arm.
You can make a joint using RigEdit which is the most commonly used plugin for rigging, there is a Plus and Free version, I will be using the free version for this. (https://create.roblox.com/store/asset/1274343708/RigEdit-Lite)
Make sure your rig is at 0, #, 0 position for this, otherwise the weapon may not appear where you intend it to be.
Open the Cautioned Blender animation plugin, and go to the “Rigging” tab, you will see a “Export Weapon / Accessory” button, clicking that will reveal another export menu with your rig and your tool you wish to animate.
Your Rig should automatically be selected, if not, select the R6 rig, then “Pick from selection”
Do the same with the tool you wish to animate, select ONLY the tool that is inside of the rig, and click Pick from Selection, your menu should look like this:
Then click “Export Weapon”
This will open a File Explorer, make sure you save the .obj file wherever you will remember it.
Once you save it, click “Clean Meta Parts” to remove all of the extra parts made from the plugin.
In Blender with the R6 Rig open, open the N-Panel (if you do not see it, press N on your keyboard)
Click on “Import New Rig (.obj)” in the panel, then select your tool from the file explorer that shows up.
Upon choosing your tool, it should open a popup saying what rig to send the tool to.
Make ABSOLUTELY sure that the dropdown in this panel says “InternalArmature” and NOT “__PrimaryArmature”
Then click OK
Once you finish that, the plugin that is built into the blend file will do the rest of the work automatically, including making the bone you animate look nice.
You can now animate the tool as needed, and when you want to export your animation, you can export as normal, make sure the rig you are importing the animation has the same tool you exported, otherwise it might not look the same as you animated.
Exporting to Roblox
When you’ve got your animation, you’ll need to use a special plugin made by @CAUTIONED, either work fine for this rig.
If you do not have the plugin installed, then you’ll need to do that.
To do that, first go here:
Blender rig exporter/animation importer - #1628 by CAUTlONED
Then here:
https://create.roblox.com/store/asset/16708835782/Blender-Animations-ultimate-edition
With your animation, you will need to click either “Export animation” or if you’re using the one by Cautioned, you can use “Export animation to file” or use the Live Sync server which exports the animation to Roblox as you animate, this tutorial will not cover Live Sync and will instead cover legacy exporting.
Then, in studio, you can use any R6 rig, whether you use the one I provided in this post or one just from the avatar loader that Roblox has, it doesn’t matter and either work.
When you have your rig added, open the plugin of your choosing and select the rig, this will set the rig you have to be the main active rig.
Then, if you’ve exported through the normal “Export animation” button in the Blender plugin, then you should have a bunch of data copied to your clipboard, so click “Import Animation” in the Roblox plugin, and then press Ctrl+V, if nothing happens then you probably copied something between instances, so just re-export.
If you’re using the plugin by Cautioned and used “Export Animation to File” in blender, then you should have an .rbxanim file somewhere on your PC, simply click “Import Animation (file(s) bulk)”, then select the .rbxanim file that you’ve saved.
If you’re using 2.0+ of the plugin by Cautioned, then you can use Live Sync by connecting your blender to your studio via HTTPS service in the plugin, see Cautioneds GitHub here to learn how to use Live Sync properly: GitHub - Cautioned/Blender-Animations-Plugin: Addon for Roblox Blender Animation Importing and Exporting · GitHub
From my experience, saving via file is better if you want to save your animation files since it’s faster and you get to keep the animation, however exporting through clipboard is good for one-time animations you don’t intend to edit in the future.
However, Live Sync is the fastest and most supportive, though I will not cover how to use it (see link above to Cautioned GitHub)
Changing the Texture of the rig (Clothing/Face)
With the built-in plugin shown in V2.1, changing the texture is extremely easy
For this, I’ll be using this rig:
You do not need to make sure the rig is at 0, 0, 0, we are only using this rig for the texture (this is different for accessories, but this tutorial is not for accessories)
Simply export the Rig that you have in studio through Explorer > Save / Export > Export .obj
In the same location that you exported, you’ll find an Image texture that looks something like this:
Once you have the rig blender file open, you’ll see “Utilities” and “Rig Texture” at the top right of the viewport:
Simply click “Choose Rig Texture”, which will open a file explorer, you have to locate the image file that Roblox gives you when you export the rig.
Once you click Apply, you’ll see the rig change the entire texture.
You’ve now changed the texture, good job!
Adding accessories to the rig in blender
With the built-in plugin shown in V2.1, adding accessories is extremely easy
To add accessories to the Blender Rig, you’ll first need to build or have an identical rig in Studio with the accessories you want to add.
First, position the rig at 0, 0, 0 to make sure the accessories appear correctly on the rig. The rig will likely appear in the ground, so position it so the rigs legs are sitting directly on top of the baseplate or whatever part you have.
Then, you’ll have to export the entire rig model.
Inside of Blender, click “File” at the top left of your screen, click “Import” and then “Wavefront (.obj)”
Select the .obj file that you saved from Roblox, and make absolutely sure that “Split By Group” on the right panel of the import settings is set to True.
Then import.
You’ll see the rig and the accessories appear
You can remove or hide every object that is named “Rig#” or similar, all you want is the objects that start with “Handle#”
Once you’ve got your meshes, you have to find the meshes that connect to each body part.
Select each accessory on one limb at a time, for example, selecting the Hair and the Glasses.
Then, you’ll find “Utilities” and “Accessories” at the top right of the viewport
Once you click Attach Accessories, you can choose which limb to attach the accessories to, being the Head, Torso, Left Arm, etc. Simply choose which limb and the plugin will do the rest.
You now have the accessory added. Do the same with every other limb.
Make sure to pair this with adding the texture to the rig if you want your rig to look identical to the rig you made in Studio.
Free blend files and studio rigs of my animating
All of these files are not up to date, they still work but they aren’t showing the newest version.
Glock 18 inspect
finally possible with the 2.2, no more anchor points
requires the studio rig if you want to export this for yourself
Glock18Inspect.blend (9.6 MB)
Glock18InspectStudio.rbxm (15.5 KB)
Sword Attack
This uses Anchor Points which are deprecated
Blender_R6_Sword.blend (3.2 MB)
Studio_R6_Sword.rbxm (16.0 KB)
FAQ
I’m getting a big error when I import a tool.
Make sure that the version of the Roblox Blender Plugin (by Cautioned) is 2.4.2 or above, if you are not sure how to get that version, go here for the help and release server: monkey with cool pants
Or, if you’re not able to join or are confused, you can use the custom version of the plugin I made on 2.4.1 to stop the error, but you may be missing out on features:
Blender Animations - 2.4.1 - Internal.zip (519.2 KB)
I don’t see any settings panel for the rig?
The rig is designed to be used with the built-in plugin that runs with the blend file, which only runs if you allow blender to run them, you’ll have to give permission for them to run once you open the blend file
I want to learn animating and this rig looks like the best
This rig can be used to learn animation but it is by no means intended for such, I made this rig with workflow for experienced animators and ability to do more with R6 in mind, so I do not recommend using this rig for your first Blender R6 rig or if you’re new to animation, but that does not mean you can’t try.
Important Notes
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This entire post’s point, which is the IK and FK rig, only works in blender, the studio rig does NOT have IK nor FK functionality, it is identical to a normal rig, thanks @gaigev2008 for suggesting to add this note
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The rig was built on Blender 4.5.6, and SHOULD work on higher versions in the future, if you’re on an older version, expect some things to not work properly like @Momiji_Dev’s issue, I’ll try and keep this rig updated constantly.
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This rig is intended to be live service and I do plan to update this rig for the foreseeable future with improvements, fixes, or just anything that might be useful, however, 2.21 is a version that should work with everything, you do not need to and are not forced to update this rig, I will continue to accept and answer any and all DMs regarding the rig for as long as I can.
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This is an extension and HEAVILY modified version of highflowy’s R6 IK Rig (this rig has no original work from that rig since I’ve rebuilt everything, but I’m still going to credit highflowy since I started with that rig), maybe they made it, maybe they didn’t, regardless this wouldn’t exist if not for their rig.
Common Mistakes
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Trying to export “_PrimaryArmature” when done with an animation, make sure you are ALWAYS exporting “InternalArmature” and NOT “_PrimaryArmature”
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Mistaking Pose Mode for Object Mode, you’d think this is obvious but I’ve gotten like 4 DMs with this as the issue…
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Moving the armature/limbs in Object Mode, despite being able to move the entire rig easily in Object Mode, it’s not recommended if you plan to export the final animation to Roblox, since rigs won’t be in the same location as the animation. You should move the rig in Object Mode if you are animating a cutscene with pre-determined player positions.
If you make something cool with it you should post it here, I’d like to see what you guys are makin’
If you have any questions or problems you can message me through discord or email, or you can put a comment under this post (I check DevForum frequently):
Before messaging me with a question about how to change config, make the rig look like your avatar, or anything similar, take a second and look at the tutorials above.
Roblox: @Aeresei
Discord: @distinguished_duccer
Email: dev@fancyduccportfolio.com
