Uploaded January 2022 | Updated September 2026, 16 minutes ago
This video walks you through fully rigging a character's body, face and long hair using the free Blender plugin called Rigify.
Steps:
Preparing the mesh
Creating the meta rig
Creating the hair rig
Weight painting
This tutorial uses blender 2.9.3
Free models
Turbosquid turbosquid.com/3d-model/free/woman
CG Trader cgtrader.com/3d-models?keywords=free+woman
DeviantArt deviantart.com/search/deviations?q=free+character+fbx
Support me and pick up the official tutorial files
TomCAT Patreon patreon.com/TomCATcharacterarttutorials
Look for the file "tut17-Rigify-BEFORE.blend"
!!!! You can still do the tutorial just fine with any model that has a full body, separate eyes and separate long hair. Separate teeth and a tongue is even better !!!!
Great Rigify tutorials
CGDive youtube.com/watch?v=Z1pL-ZUL0YU&list=WL&index=5&t=384s
Lollypopman youtube.com/watch?v=f8CXQxUZV3s&list=PLok698dKQ_Hg2pzEbjOIAlDRYI8Z3gmDB&index=4&t=96s
00:00:00 Intro
00:02:57 PREPARE MESH
00:11:05 Shrink the head and hair
00:16:15 Install 'Rigify' Plugin
00:17:22 META RIG
00:18:21 Place metarig
00:18:51 !Caution!
00:22:17 Knees
00:25:16 Arms
00:28:03 Fingers
00:33:25 Face
00:46:21 Eyes
00:48:37 Test rig
00:49:03 Fix default Eyes & Teeth
00:52:06 HAIR RIG
00:53:19 Add hair bones
00:55:33 Rename bones
01:01:21 Symmetrize hair bones
01:03:57 Create vertex groups
01:07:38 Parent the rig
01:08:35 Attach eyes
01:13:32 Attach tongue and teeth
01:21:13 Attach hair & vertex groups
01:31:46 Animate
01:44:39 WEIGHT PAINT
01:48:57 Mirror tool + vertex groups
01:49:29 Shoulder
01:56:53 Pelvis
02:01:34 Knees
02:03:36 Fingers
02:06:05 Elbow
02:15:02 Ankles/toes
02:18:38 Head/neck
02:22:01 Face animate
02:29:41 Weight paint face/mouth
02:35:22 Forehead
02:40:21 Eyes
02:51:39 Eyelashes
02:57:02 Hair
02:58:57 Fix hair rig control
03:02:24 Separate nape/weight paint
03:07:27 Separate left strand and add volume
03:14:55 Separate center back of outer hair/weight paint
03:21:49 Fix top strand of hair (copy weights - also used to add clothing_
03:23:45 Separate left/right rear hair/weight paint
03:29:55 Weight paint Front strands of hair
03:36:55 Close
This video walks you through fully rigging a character's body, face and long hair using the free Blender plugin called Rigify.
Steps:
Preparing the mesh
Creating the meta rig
Creating the hair rig
Weight painting
This tutorial uses blender 2.9.3
Free models
Turbosquid turbosquid.com/3d-model/free/woman
CG Trader cgtrader.com/3d-models?keywords=free+woman
DeviantArt deviantart.com/search/deviations?q=free+character+fbx
Support me and pick up the official tutorial files
TomCAT Patreon patreon.com/TomCATcharacterarttutorials
Look for the file "tut17-Rigify-BEFORE.blend"
!!!! You can still do the tutorial just fine with any model that has a full body, separate eyes and separate long hair. Separate teeth and a tongue is even better !!!!
Great Rigify tutorials
CGDive youtube.com/watch?v=Z1pL-ZUL0YU&list=WL&index=5&t=384s
Lollypopman youtube.com/watch?v=f8CXQxUZV3s&list=PLok698dKQ_Hg2pzEbjOIAlDRYI8Z3gmDB&index=4&t=96s
00:00:00 Intro
00:02:57 PREPARE MESH
00:11:05 Shrink the head and hair
00:16:15 Install 'Rigify' Plugin
00:17:22 META RIG
00:18:21 Place metarig
00:18:51 !Caution!
00:22:17 Knees
00:25:16 Arms
00:28:03 Fingers
00:33:25 Face
00:46:21 Eyes
00:48:37 Test rig
00:49:03 Fix default Eyes & Teeth
00:52:06 HAIR RIG
00:53:19 Add hair bones
00:55:33 Rename bones
01:01:21 Symmetrize hair bones
01:03:57 Create vertex groups
01:07:38 Parent the rig
01:08:35 Attach eyes
01:13:32 Attach tongue and teeth
01:21:13 Attach hair & vertex groups
01:31:46 Animate
01:44:39 WEIGHT PAINT
01:48:57 Mirror tool + vertex groups
01:49:29 Shoulder
01:56:53 Pelvis
02:01:34 Knees
02:03:36 Fingers
02:06:05 Elbow
02:15:02 Ankles/toes
02:18:38 Head/neck
02:22:01 Face animate
02:29:41 Weight paint face/mouth
02:35:22 Forehead
02:40:21 Eyes
02:51:39 Eyelashes
02:57:02 Hair
02:58:57 Fix hair rig control
03:02:24 Separate nape/weight paint
03:07:27 Separate left strand and add volume
03:14:55 Separate center back of outer hair/weight paint
03:21:49 Fix top strand of hair (copy weights - also used to add clothing_
03:23:45 Separate left/right rear hair/weight paint
03:29:55 Weight paint Front strands of hair
03:36:55 Close
