BoneJuice

Armature utility plugin for Blender, for niche cases I encounter where it would be a lot nicer to have something do the work for me!

Version 0.1.0 which supports Blender 4.0+

• May be backwards compatible, but the latest changes are untested on previous versions

Feature List (click on the links to see how-to/examples):

• Object Mode
  • Clean and Combine - Combine multiple meshes, with modifiers, into one export-ready object. Armatures are preserved.
  • Merge/Operate Vertex Groups - Run a math operation on one or two vertex groups. Also available in Weight Paint mode.
• Armature Edit Mode
  • Connect Bones - Quickly clean up imported rigs by reconnecting bones to their children.
  • Reduce Rig - Reduces a rig to deform-only bones, while patching up the bone hierarchy.
  • Auto-Parent Bones - Does exactly as it sounds: attempts to reparent selected bones based on proximity.
  • Spline from Curve - Generates Spline IK with optional Bone control points from a curve.
  • Add Bone Circle - Creates a circle of bones around an active bone, with rolls adjusted to face it
  • Add Leaf Bones - Add leaf bones to an armature for external purposes
  • Select End Bones - Select bones at the bottom of the hierarchy
  • Set Bone Length - Does exactly as it sounds: sets the length of all selected bones to a set value
  • Surface Bone Placer - Place bones on geometric surfaces with a single click
• Armature Pose Mode
  • Flip IK Limits - Flips the minimum and maximum IK limit of a specified axis for all selected bones.
  • Curl Bones - Offsets Euler rotations of all selected pose bones by the given rotation. Currently only works in Euler rotation mode.
• Animation
  • Bake All Actions - Bakes all scene actions for the given armature.
• Rendering
  • (Work In Progress) Batch Render NLA Tracks - Individually render out each animated NLA track inside of all selected objects. Renders from all selected cameras. Great for game animation previews or spritesheets.

Installation

Download the zip file from the releases area on GitHub, and then go to Edit > Preferences > Add-ons and then click Install in the top right, and select the zip file. Make sure the plugin it points to is enabled.

If you want the latest version, use $ make (Linux-only) inside this folder to get a zip file, or simply zip up the src folder and install that instead.

Development

This plugin is developed using a custom environment in VS Code. I recommend using the workspace settings and recommended extensions.

When setting up, be sure to clone the Blender Python Autocomplete if you use the workspace settings (run inside this repository):

• $ git clone https://github.com/Korchy/blender_autocomplete.git

I also highly recommend these VS Code workspace extensions for editing this project.

• jacqueslucke.blender-development
• blenderfreetimeprojects.blender-python-code-templates

The Blender Development plugin is really helpful with its built-in debugger. Press F1, and run >Blender: Build and Start to debug. The workspace configuration should be set up for you already.

Common Issues

• If the debugger is running into permission issues on setup, you may have installed the addon as a ZIP beforehand. Open Blender and uninstall the addon, before closing Blender and re-attempting the debugging process.
• If the debugger is failing to install modules, you may check out this thread here
  • In Blender 3.1 on Linux, /home/usrname/.../blender-3.1.0-linux-x64/3.1/python/bin/python3.10 -m ensurepip
  • In Blender 3.6 and 4.1 on Windows, I had to run python.exe -m pip install debugpy in C:\Program Files\Blender Foundation\Blender X.X\X.X\python\bin