Tutorial Lesson1 - Shoulders/Chest - Rigging the Nude Female with Blender

Complete Course Overview

There are a lot of things you see on a nude that you don’t see on a clothed model. From the scapula to the shoulder, the hips to the toes, there are a lot of concerns that traditional character rigging tutorial series skip. We will skip none of these.

When viewing a nude character, all of her joints, bends, and creases must be addressed. If we fail that, the nude will look low-quality and strange.

Improper treatment of these items lead to drinking-straw collapsed elbows, awful disjointed hips, and necks that look like they belong on a monster. Not only will we improve on these joints, but sometimes we will go above and beyond to add subtle deforms that give a subtle punch to the render that everyone will notice and appreciate, but unlikely even the pros will be able to explain the difference that puts your renders above-and-beyond.

In short, this series of tutorial videos will teach you the required techniques and skills to make your nude character attractive and human-looking.

We will concentrate mostly on Monette Taida, the surfer girl character pictured on this page. She is thin, but not overly so, with enough fatty portions to make her rig more average than, eg, Lilithe Classica, whose rig must take into account how skinny she is.

Monette Taida also is a large-breasted character, which will make the breast rigging portion of the course more obviously beneficial.

This Lesson: Shoulders/Chest

This portion of the course is the most complex part of the series by far, this includes interactions with the back in the latissimus dorsi, the neck in the trapezius muscles, the upper-arms, the chest in the pectoral muscles, the ribs, and even to some extent the breasts.

Because of the complexity of this joint, this lessons is broken up into these sessions.

1. (3m13s) Preparation - What we’ll be doing.
2. (5m45s) Overview: Hierarchy and Relationships I - Breast, Pectoral, Clavicle, Arms, Scapula.
3. (2m26s) Overview: Hierarchy and Relationships II - Trapezius and chest resizing.
4. (14m58s) Sternum and Pectorals I, all bones deleted, adding them back in.
5. (21m6s) Pectoral Finish and Breast Stretch. Breasts are looking really nice at the end.
6. (15m6s) Ribs Overview and Placement, making the deforms of the midsection look reasonable.
7. (13m12s) Trapezius, the bald Monette and her beautiful neck.
8. (15m00s) Trapezius wrap-up and the Latissimus, arms pressed into the body.
9. (17m58s) A minimal Scapula Placement and some Latissimus Mods. Surprise anatomical correctness.

For discussion about this tutorial series, come to the Discord to chat with the community: https://discord.gg/7rFDMEYVzj is the invite link.

A free technical overview can be found on https://faemalia.net/tutorials/rigging-the-female-nude-with-blender-shoulders-chest/.