Texture Animation

This approach to animating textures is well documented via videos.  Here is a written procedure of the standard approach for using the UV Warp modifier to achieve a texture animation.

This technique is found in characters like Pocoyo or the Lego movies.

Retargeting BVH

This entry covers another method for incorporating Motion Capture data through a BVH file.  This method is useful for any circumstance, but is exclusively helpful when your BVH rig does not have a nice T-Pose in Edit Mode (as shown below).

This entry is a very basic summary of what is shown in this video here Video Reference

A huge database of BVH files can be found here:  MoCap Database

If you have a BVH rig with a nice T-Pose while in Edit Mode, you may want to use this approach instead  BVH Meshing

Mesh a BVH Armature

This entry will show a simple approach to meshing a motion capture armature.  This method lends itself well to an armature that has a nice T-Pose while in Edit Mode.

For this approach, we'll be adding our own mesh to the existing mocap armature.  Since the requirement is have a nice T-Pose in Edit Mode, I found that BVH files at this site T-Posed Mo Cap Links, meet that requirement.

Below is an image of an example armature in edit mode.

Stretch To

This entry covers an obscure but useful rigging feature known as Stretch To.  This method basically helps fix ugly 'pinching' at joints where bones are bending (i.e. elbows).

To demonstrate this, we'll use a cylinder with many ring-cuts [Ctrl + R] as our arm which we will bend.

Right off, just applying a simple bone setup shows a great deal of pinching at the point of rotation.  We'll be using a Stretch To bone to alleviate this.

First, with the Armature selected in Edit Mode [TAB], move the cursor to the 'forearm' of the armature and add a new bone [Shift + A].

Select the new bone, then Shift select the 'forearm'.  Then connect the bone [Ctrl + P] as detached, so choose Keep Offset.

Rotate the new bone so that it intersects the top of the lower 'bicep arm' bone.  Move the cursor to the tail of the new bones position [Shift + S].

Now select the 'bicep' bone and then Shift select the new bone.  Use the Constraint command [Ctrl + Shift + C] to bring up the constraints menu and select Stretch To.

At this point the new bone should now move in such a way as to maintain its position tethered between the two bones.

Adjust the Head/Tail value and the Influence to get the tail of the new stretch bone to line up with the cursor once the arm is bent.

Finally, move to Weight Paint mode [Ctrl + TAB], and select the new stretch bone.  Paint its influence onto the mesh till the desired pinch attenuation is achieved.

Compare the original (left) with pinching, to the stretch bone approach (right).  The difference is subtle, but the stretch to approach is more natural, especially for joints such as these.

Inverse Kinematics

This entry discusses the rigging feature known as Inverse Kinematics (IK).  In Blender this is available when in Pose Mode, and can be found in the Tools [T] menu (as shown below).

When this is enabled, essentially, parent bones will automatically adjust to the movements of the most child bone.  In the image below, the lowest bone is being translated, and the parent bones are being bent accordingly.  Conversely, without Auto IK, you would have to rotated and translate each bone separately working from the parent down to the child.

The general rule for when to apply IK or not, is for limbs that bear weight or support the rest of the armature, IK should be used, for everything else use Forward Kinematics.

Rig X-Mirror

This entry covers the use of the X-Mirror option when rigging bones.  To start this short tutorial, start we'll start with a simple bone.

With that bone selected and in Edit Mode [TAB], the following option is available in the Tools [T] menu.  Check this box to enable X-Axis Mirroring.

What this does is allows you to create a mirrored bone structure when viewing orthogonal to the X-Axis or [NUM1].  In this case however, to make use of the mirror you must extrude with [Shift + E] rather than just [E].  This tells Blender to make use of the mirror option.

From here, all bones extruded [E] from the mirror extrusion will also be mirrored.  However, any extrusions from the original bone will still need [Shift + E] to be mirrored.

Animate Rig

This quick tutorial will show how to animate a rig.  Before following these steps, first create a mesh and apply a bone rigging to it.  Once this is complete and done correctly, you can begin animating.

The first step is to switch into Pose Mode.  In this mode you can select bones, pose them, and keyframe [i] as usual.  For the very first frame, keyframe as LocRot.  Also make sure to select-all-bones every time you key frame.

For all other keyframes, use Available.

Note:  If you mess up, you can always move back to a previous keyframe and use Available to override it.

Rigging - Blender Foundation

This tutorial is the workflow for rigging as defined in the book Blender Foundations.  It's a brief summary of the major steps.

PREREQUISITES:

• Ensure all transforms are applied [Ctrl + a]
• Set origin to the center of the object [Shift + Ctrl + Alt + c]
• Origin to Geometry

CREATE SKELETON:
Add bones [Shift+a],  Armature >> Single Bone
Make the bones viewable through the mesh by enable X-Ray in the Object pallete for the bone object.

It is common and useful to have an overall parent bone to provide control of the entire skeleton.

EDIT SKELETON:

In Edit Mode, you can select either node of the bone to extrude [e] or to use the normal transform functions.                  

To create a disconnected bone, select the two bones and parent by [Ctrl+P], and choose Keep Offset, to create a disconnected relationship.

Connecting Bones (Parent selected last):  [Ctrl + P]

Disconnecting Bones: [Alt+P]

POSING THE SKELETON:
Enter Pose Mode [Ctrl + TAB]
Enable Auto IK to have child bones affect parent bones

SKINNING:
Select the mesh, then [Shift+Click] the Armature.
Parent the mesh to the armature [Ctrl + P].  Armature Deform: With Automatic Weights

      Enable Quaternion in the Armature pallette.

For weight painting, select the mesh (in Pose Mode) then hit [Ctrl + TAB] to enter Weight Paint Mode.

Human Character Rigging Tutorial

http://www.blenderguru.com/videos/introduction-to-rigging

This tutorial makes use of the built-in rigging add-on,  Rigify, which provides a pre-generated human rig.