There are two versions available for download:

3.40 f or Blender 2.79

3.54 for Blender 2.8 and above





What is Auto-Rig Pro?



Auto-Rig Pro is an all-in-one solution to rig characters, retarget animations, and provide Fbx export for Unity and Unreal Engine. First developed as my own in-house rigging tool, i've released it a few years ago and many new features have been added since then.

Want to try first? Download Mike, free character rig here.

Rig features demo

Getting Started with Auto-Rig Pro:

Youtube Channel - Documentation - Frequently Asked Questions





Rig fast with the Smart feature





For humanoid characters, the Smart feature can automatically place the bones to speed up the process, after adding the green markers. The result remains editable.

Non-humanoid characters can also be rigged without the Smart feature, manually (horse, dog...).

Based on a non-destructive workflow, the final rig remains easily editable anytime after its generation. Check the product documentation and the youtube channel for more informations.

Built for performances, allowing fast animation playback.

Character examples: Mike (free), Anna, Kevin, Nina and Alex

Important note about skinning: If possible, use water-tight geometry for best auto-skinning results. Knowing the bases of Blender's skinning tools, weight painting, to fine tweak the bones influences is recommended. Read the doc for more informations.

If you encounter any bugs please report it. Updates are free and will remain free. Also make sure to read the FAQ and the documentation to solve common issues.





Modular

Customize the rig definition in a few clicks: fingers, wings, toes, spine bones, multiple neck bones, tail, breasts, ears and much more. Duplicate or remove limbs to rig spiders, centaurs... or whatever!

Video tutorial, rig a centaur with the multi-limb feature: Centaur Rig









Wings limb for advanced feathers rig:





Spline IK limb to rig ropes, tentacles, IK spine...





3 bones IK for quadrupedal creatures:





Intuitive tool to edit the bone shapes, with automatic mirror:





Customizable UI: fully editable layout, buttons positions, colors, background pictures... The picker panel dynamically updates, so you can select any bone from the separate panel easily.













Remap

The Remap feature allows retargetting of any armature action to another one, with different bone names and bone orientations, supporting imported .bvh/.fbx armatures for example. It's universal: works with Auto-Rig Pro, Rigify, custom rigs... Define the source armature, the target armature, and the animation will retarget according to the bones names matches and bones original orientation.

It support IK feet, hands for accurate motion tracking, and an interactive offset tool to remap to different characters proportions.

Video: Remapper demo









Game Engine Export

Auto-Rig Pro allows export to FBX format (GLTF is being worked on as well) via a dedicated module, to proven engines such as Unity or Unreal Engine.

3 export types: Universal to export a simplified bones hierarchy for any creature, Humanoid for bipeds only, with options for easy retargetting and root motion, and Generic to export the deforming bones and the non-deforming ones if they are parent of the deforming bones.

Support of multiple twist bones for optimal volume preservation in game engines, where dual quaternions skinning is not possible (top: single twist bone, below: 4 twist bones)









Unit conversion to initialize the scale transforms values to 1.0 in Unity and Unreal Engine

Unreal Mannequin compliant: support Mannequin bones hierarchy, bone axes conversion, bones naming

Automatic A-Pose

Support full facial rig, and advanced bones. "Twist" mode for secondary controllers, wrapped on bendy-bones for smooth curves effects, leading to 1:1 export compatibility in Fbx format





Actions are baked to the simplified rig

Animated shape keys (blend shapes) support

Selective/multiple action export

Root motion support









Bring your poses to the next level!

The secondary controllers offer a unique control over the pose. Located all along the limbs, they're dedicated to fine pose sculpting, cartoon effects, bending, stretching, etc. Three deformations mode in option: Twist (exportable to Fbx and bendy-bones based for best compatibility), Additive (exportable to FBX), Bendy-Bones (Blender only).

Just use them instead of corrective shape keys, or as a complement. Below a typical leg bent before and after tweaking the secondary controllers.









Corrective shape keys can be created easily with a dedicated tool supporting IK-FK bone chains:





Tell Me More!

Extensive list of what the addon has to offer:

Automatic bone placement solver based on mesh recognition for bipeds characters. Asymmetrical models supported.

solver based on mesh recognition for bipeds characters. Asymmetrical models supported. Edit Reference Bones feature to modify the rig anytime you want . No need to redo everything if a bone is not where you want it to be.

feature to modify the rig . No need to redo everything if a bone is not where you want it to be. Apply Pose as Rest Pose feature to quickly change the rest pose of the character, aligning reference bones on it and applying armature modifiers in a single click

feature to quickly change the rest pose of the character, aligning reference bones on it and applying armature modifiers in a single click Modular : only rig what you need. Fingers, toes, ears, breast, adjustable amount of spine, neck, twist bones, tail, and neck bones... Duplicate, remove limbs to rig creatures with multiple arms and legs.

: only rig what you need. Fingers, toes, ears, breast, adjustable amount of spine, neck, twist bones, tail, and neck bones... Duplicate, remove limbs to rig creatures with multiple arms and legs. Fingers auto-rotation option: bend when scaling the first phalange, pre-defined fist pose

Easy controller shape edition

Bone picker: Can be turned on/off, import/export presets. Customizable.

Can be turned on/off, import/export presets. Customizable. Colors customization

Cartoon compliant: stretchy spine, legs, arms...

compliant: stretchy spine, legs, arms... IK-FK snap autokey compliant, snaps properly when unlocking all the leg/forearm rotation axis

autokey compliant, snaps properly when unlocking all the leg/forearm rotation axis IK-FK controllers auto hide

controllers Hybrid IK pole / IK arrow vector

2 or 3 bones IK chains for legs

for legs Knees and elbows pinning

Head rotation locked or free

Bend all fingers in one click ( fingers grasp ), fist pre-defined pose, auto rotation of fingers phalanges from scale

), fist pre-defined pose, auto rotation of fingers phalanges from scale IK/FK eyes

Auto-eyelid rotation

Multiple Child-Of constraints support for the IK hands and feet to change their parent space any time (e.g. if the character is driving a car, hands on the wheel, then grab the car door)

for the IK hands and feet to change their parent space any time (e.g. if the character is driving a car, hands on the wheel, then grab the car door) Complete set of secondary controllers for fine pose sculpt

for fine pose sculpt Advanced facial setup with automated placement

Improved skinning based on Blender's heatmaps. Auto-splitting of multiple elements + voxelization. Compliant with the Voxel Heat Diffuse Skinning addon.

Shape keys drivers creation tool

Game engines support, FBX : Unity - Unreal Engine. Generic, Humanoid and Universal rig type

: Unity - Unreal Engine. Generic, Humanoid and Universal rig type Bone remapper to retarget any armature action to another one, with different bone names and bone orientations. IK support. BVH, FBX files compliant, e.g. Mixamo animations.

to retarget any armature action to another one, with different bone names and bone orientations. IK support. files compliant, e.g. Mixamo animations. Compliant with X-Muscle System for realistic muscles simulation

By buying this addon you support my work and the Blender foundation, its developers financially. A part of each sale is donated to them. It's worth a big thank you from the open source community, helping Blender remaining free and accessible for everyone! And obviously you ensure the funds for this addon next new features, bugfix. I'm making my best to constantly improve the beast, based on users requests and my own ideas. Have quick look at the release log below. You receive a notification when the addon is updated, and download it for free.

Updates:

Make sure to uninstall the current addon before installing the new one and restart blender.

--[3.54.15]--

New/improved:

Remap-Export: Bake at light speed, x50 speed up! A custom baking function allows amazing performances (was using the built-in baking function of Blender before). Results are suprisingly impressive: when retargetting 4720 frames, it now takes 15 seconds instead of 14 minutes. Animation baking when exporting to Fbx also benefit from this speed up.





A patch has also been submitted to the Blender developers for inclusion into Blender: https://developer.blender.org/D8808

(however, due to code dependencies and optimizations, performances are still greater in Auto-Rig Pro with its dedicated, light function: x50 versus x3).

Credits: Inspired by Philip (Hotox) patch for the Fbx importer: https://developer.blender.org/D7762





Fixed:

Smart: Error when detecting knees under certain circumstances

Rig: Backward-compatibility issue with the root bone options

Remap: Error with proxy armatures

New anim baking: fix error with Blender versions below 2.90

Export: Bones rotations for Unreal broken with Blender 2.83

Export: Proxy armatures export was broken with Blender 2.90





> Older Releases Logs





----[1.0.0]----

First Auto-Rig Pro release!