Modular Rig Exporter
Framework for exporting easy/clean Characters to inside of Game-Engines
Role: Pipeline TD : Rigging Technical Artist
The character rigging process was time-consuming and error-prone, with each character requiring a custom rig built from scratch. This led to inconsistent results, unpredictable behavior in Unity, and frequent re-export issues that disrupted the art pipeline.
Design a modular rigging framework that lets artists assemble production-ready character rigs from reusable components — with consistent skinning quality, predictable behavior in Unity, and near-zero re-export friction.
Approach
Audited existing rigs to identify shared structure across character archetypes. Defined a component vocabulary — spine, limb, hand, facial — and built each as an independent, connectable module in Blender with documented socket conventions.
Solution
Delivered a Python-based assembly tool inside Blender that lets riggers drag-and-drop components, auto-configures constraints, validates skinning weight distribution, and exports a Unity-compatible FBX with a single click.
Technical Details
- Custom Blender add-on with a panel-based UI for component selection and assembly
- Constraint-driven IK/FK switching with seamless baking support
- Weight normalization pass run pre-export to prevent Unity deformation artifacts
- JSON-based rig configuration files for version control and team sharing
- Unity Editor script to auto-map humanoid avatar configuration from rig metadata
Tools Used
