Artist Creates a Tifa Lockhart 3D Rig With Only 30 Deformation Bones

A$AP BERG, a 2D/3D Illustrator and Animator who's been consistently inspiring us through 2024 with his artistic endeavors, has recently unveiled his latest project aimed at challenging his own 3D rigging skills.

For this project, A$AP's goal is to set up a pretty facial rig in Blender using as few deformation bones as possible. To achieve this, he used a 3D model of Tifa Lockhart from a mobile Final Fantasy game, which has fewer than 30 bones for the face, including the left and right sides, and rigged it with the help of the Riggify add-on to create custom controls and Easy Weights for weight painting. Furthermore, he implemented two shape keys for the character's cheeks, with the rest of the rig being entirely bone-based.

Following the community's enthusiastic feedback on the showcased setup, A$AP also demonstrated the full-body rig of Tifa, explaining how the rest of the body was rigged and announcing that once it's complete and refined, the setup will be available for download:

Previously, the creator also wowed us with his "lazy animation test" featuring Resident Evil 4 Remake Ada Wong's impressive facial rig made in Blender:

And prior to that, he also showcased a full-body rig designed for the in-game model of Valorant' Clove, as well as a spectacular Sage Orb shader, also inspired by Valorant:

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