Tiny 2D Rig Tools

Tiny 2D Rig Tools is an addon for Blender that assists in the create and Rigging for 2-D Cut-Out style characters with Grease Pencil Objects. A demo of a pre-release version of this addon can be seen at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQ_ZPXVrPsQ

Rig Editor

Features

• Generate a Basic Human Armature
• Automatically Create IKs with Drivers
• Add Custom Time Offset Properties to control Mouth/Hand Drawings
• Use 'Turn-Around' to offset Bone Locations in sync with Time Offset
• Control Panel to Animate Characters

Generate New Armature

create_armature.mp4

1. Open 'Editor' Side Panel
2. Use the 'Create Armature' Operator
3. Align bones to your character
4. Select a bone to set as your 'Property Bone'
5. Use Intilize Rig to setup drivers to control rig via 'Control' Panel

Adding A Custom Time Offset

create_time_offset.mp4

1. Follow Generate New Rig Proceedure
2. Under 'Rig Properties' select Add Custom Property to creae a new Driver Source
3. Under 'Rig Grease Pencil' select 'Add Time Offset with Driver' and select a Property to Drive it

Editing Turnaround

create_turnaround.mp4

1. During 'Initilize Rig' ensure Turnaround is Enabled
2. Under Turnaround Editor select Edit Turnaround Action
3. Set the position of some bones per frame of turnaround (within turnaround length)
4. Select Edit Turnaround Action again to close editor
5. Use Add OFfset to Selected Bone to offset bone's location with turnaround information
6. Under Rig Control use Pose and Pose Head to change turnaround position

Rig Control

Changing Time Offset Properties

control_time_offset.mp4

1. Find your User Properties listed at the top
2. Adjust property like 'Mouth' to change Iime Offset Position

Changing Turnaround

control_turnaround.mp4

1. Set a new POST to adjust Body and HEad
2. Use HEAD POSE to adjust just the head

IK Pole Flipping

control_ik_flip.mp4

1. Use FLIP Icon to enable IK Pole Flipping
2. IK Pole Flip will enable a transoform modifier on the Pole to adjust it's location

Bake IK to FK

control_bake_ik.mp4

1. Set IK to desired ocation
2. Use Disable IK Button to Bake the exact location to FK
3. FK adjustments can now be made

NOTE: Switching back from IK to FK will give inaccurate result as show in above demo

Nudge Limb Chain

control_limb_chain_nudge.mp4

1. Use '- Back' to move limb chain behind character
2. use '+ Forward' to move limb chain infront of character

Controlling Hands

control_hands.mp4

1. Use 'ARROW' to Nudge hand infront on Limb Chain
2. Select a Hand Time Offset integer to change hand pose
3. Use the 'MIRROR' icon to Flip the Drawing