ANIMATION WORKFLOWS

Overview

Rigging, animation, and rendering pipelines for Blender.

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Rigging

Rigify (Humanoid)

1. Import character mesh (T-pose or A-pose)
2. Add Armature → Human (Meta-Rig)
3. Scale/position meta-rig to match mesh
4. Generate Rig (Rigify buttons → Generate)
5. Parent: Mesh → Armature (Automatic Weights)
6. Weight paint cleanup if needed

Auto-Rig Pro / Rigify Pro (Advanced)

• Better facial rigs
• IK/FK switching
• Custom bone shapes

Simple Rig (Props/Mechanical)

1. Add bones for each moving part
2. Parent bones to mesh (Bone Heat / Envelope)
3. Add constraints: Copy Location/Rotation/Scale
4. Add drivers for mechanical relationships

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Keyframe Animation

Basic Workflow

1. Set frame range: Scene → Frame Start/End
2. Pose at frame 1 → Insert keyframes (I → Location/Rotation/Scale)
3. Move to frame 50 → Pose → Insert keyframes
4. Graph Editor: Clean curves, set interpolation
5. Dope Sheet: Adjust timing

Interpolation Types

Type	Use Case
Bezier	Smooth, natural motion (default)
Linear	Mechanical, constant speed
Constant	Hold pose (stepped)
Elastic/Bounce	Cartoon effects

Graph Editor Tips

- T: Interpolation menu
- V: Handle type (Auto, Vector, Aligned, Free)
- Shift+E: Auto-clamp handles
- Period (.) on numpad: Frame selected
- Ctrl+Click: Add keyframe at cursor

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NLA (Non-Linear Animation)

Action Strips

1. Create actions: Walk, Run, Idle, Attack
2. NLA Editor → Push Down (stash) each action
3. Blend strips: Overlap for transitions
4. Extrapolation: Hold / Nothing / Repeat
5. Layer strips: Additive layers for details

Workflow

Base Layer: Walk cycle (repeat)
Layer 1: Arm swing variation (additive)
Layer 2: Head turn (override)
Layer 3: Facial expression (override)

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Motion Capture / Retargeting

Import BVH/FBX

1. File → Import → BVH / FBX
2. Creates armature with animation
3. Retarget to your rig:
   - Add constraints: Copy Rotation (target mocap bone)
   - Or use Retargeting addon (Rigify has built-in)

Retargeting Workflow (Rigify)

1. Import mocap → creates "Mocap" armature
2. Select your Rigify rig
3. Bone Constraints → Copy Rotation → Target: Mocap bone
4. Bake Action (Pose → Animation → Bake Action)
5. Clean up: Remove constraints, simplify keys

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Procedural Animation

Drivers

# Driver: Gear rotation based on another gear
# Driver expression: -var * (teeth_a / teeth_b)

# Setup via Python
driver = gear_b.driver_add('rotation_euler', 2).driver
driver.type = 'SCRIPTED'
var = driver.variables.new()
var.name = 'gear_a_rot'
var.targets[0].id = gear_a
var.targets[0].data_path = 'rotation_euler[2]'
driver.expression = '-gear_a_rot * 0.5'  # 2:1 ratio

Geometry Nodes Animation

1. Geometry Nodes → Object Info → Get animated object
2. Use frame number: #frame
3. Math nodes for procedural motion
4. Instance on points with animation offset

Simulation (Physics)

- Rigid Body: Falling objects, destruction
- Cloth: Flags, capes, clothing
- Fluid: Water, smoke, fire
- Particles: Magic effects, debris, crowds
- Soft Body: Jelly, flesh deformation

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Camera Animation

Dolly/Crane

1. Add Curve (Bezier) for path
2. Camera → Follow Path constraint
3. Target Empty → Track To constraint
4. Animate Curve Evaluation (0→1 over frames)

Handheld Shake

1. Camera → Add Noise modifier (Graph Editor)
2. Scale: 0.01-0.05, Strength: 0.1-0.5
3. Or: Python script for procedural shake

DOF (Depth of Field)

1. Camera → Depth of Field → Focus Object: Target Empty
2. F-Stop: 1.4-2.8 (shallow) / 8-16 (deep)
3. Animate Focus Distance for rack focus

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Rendering Animation

Settings

scene = bpy.context.scene
scene.frame_start = 1
scene.frame_end = 250
scene.render.fps = 24
scene.render.resolution_x = 1920
scene.render.resolution_y = 1080

# Output
scene.render.filepath = "//renders/anim_####.png"
scene.render.image_settings.file_format = 'PNG'
scene.render.image_settings.color_mode = 'RGBA'
scene.render.image_settings.compression = 15
scene.render.use_motion_blur = True
scene.render.motion_blur_shutter = 0.5
scene.render.motion_blur_samples = 16

Motion Blur

Cycles:
- Render → Motion Blur → Position: Center/Start/End
- Shutter: 0.5 (180° shutter)
- Samples: 16+ for quality

EEVEE:
- Render → Motion Blur → Enable
- Steps: 8-16

Frame Sequencing

# Render frames
blender -b scene.blend -E CYCLES -o //renders/frame_#### -f 1..250

# Encode to video (ffmpeg)
ffmpeg -framerate 24 -i //renders/frame_%04d.png -c:v libx264 -pix_fmt yuv420p output.mp4

# Or in Blender: Video Sequencer → Add → Image Sequence → Export FFmpeg

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Alembic Cache (Pipeline)

Export

bpy.ops.wm.alembic_export(
    filepath="animation.abc",
    start=1, end=250,
    selected=True,
    flatten=True,
    subsamples=4
)

Import

bpy.ops.wm.alembic_import(
    filepath="animation.abc",
    as_background_job=False
)

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Crowd Animation

Particle Instancing

1. Emitter plane → Particle System (Hair)
2. Render → Object → Collection (pick character collection)
3. Advanced → Rotation: Velocity/Random
4. Scale: Random 0.9-1.1
5. Use Collection instances for variation

Geometry Nodes Crowd

1. Grid of points
2. Random select character from collection
3. Instance with random animation offset
4. Look-at target for direction

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Lip Sync

Papagayo / Rhubarb

1. Audio → Rhubarb Lip Sync → .json/.tsv
2. Import to Blender (Papagayo addon or custom script)
3. Map phonemes to shape keys
4. Bake to shape key animation

Shape Keys Setup

1. Create basis + phoneme shapes (A, E, I, O, U, M, etc.)
2. Driver each shape key from phoneme track
3. Smooth with Graph Editor

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Export for Game Engines

Unity/Unreal (FBX)

bpy.ops.export_scene.fbx(
    filepath="character.fbx",
    use_selection=True,
    apply_unit_scale=True,
    apply_scale_options='FBX_SCALE_ALL',
    bake_space_transform=True,
    object_types={'ARMATURE', 'MESH'},
    use_armature_deform_only=True,
    add_leaf_bones=False,
    primary_bone_axis='Y_FORWARD',
    secondary_bone_axis='X_UP'
)

Web (GLTF)

bpy.ops.export_scene.gltf(
    filepath="character.glb",
    export_format='GLB',
    use_selection=True,
    export_animations=True,
    export_frame_range=True,
    export_frame_step=1,
    export_force_sampling=True,
    export_skins=True,
    export_morph=True
)

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Performance Tips

Animation Optimization

- Reduce keyframes: Simplify curves (Graph Editor → Key → Simplify)
- Use actions for reusable cycles
- Bake physics to keyframes for render farm
- Proxy/low-res meshes for viewport animation
- Hide heavy collections while animating

Render Farm

1. Split frames across machines
2. Use Flamenco (Blender's render farm) or Deadline
3. Shared storage for assets
4. Alembic caches for sim data
5. Collect → Encode → Review

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AI-Assisted Animation (via MCP)

Prompt Examples

"Animate camera: 360° orbit around object over 120 frames, ease in/out"
"Create walk cycle for rigged character: 24 frames, loop seamlessly"
"Add noise modifier to camera rotation for handheld feel"
"Set up DOF rack focus from object A to B over 60 frames"
"Create particle explosion at frame 50, 200 particles, 2 second life"
"Bake rigid body simulation for 100 falling boxes to keyframes"

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🔗 СВЯЗИ

• Прочие в категории «Референсы»: BLENDER MATERIALS API REFERENCE, BLENDER MESH OPERATIONS API REFERENCE, BLENDER PYTHON API REFERENCE (4.x), BLENDER SCRIPTING PATTERNS - SAFE & EFFECTIVE, BLENDER-MCP - FULL DOCUMENTATION
• По темам: BLENDER-MCP ADDON - DEEP DIVE, CASE 04: CHARACTER RIG & ANIMATION, CASE 06: ANIMATION LOOP
• Теги: #animation, #frame, #reference

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🎯 ЦЕЛЬ

Референс категории «Референсы», сложность —.