About the Rig
Introduction
The Endertainer Rig is a character rig for Blender, specifically designed for Minecraft or cubic-style characters. It is the result of a year and a half of experimentation with custom rig edits and serves as the successor to the SB (Shulker Box) EndEdit and SS (Smooth Stone) EndEdit projects. The goal of the Endertainer Rig is to provide a rig that prioritizes both simplicity and customization.
Development History
It all began in mid to late 2020, when I created my first Minecraft rig edit based on DarthLilo’s LACM rig. That edit was primarily a set of simple bug fixes for personal use. Things changed when I discovered a way to add a custom bone shape to a canceled Minecraft rig project based on the PixelPerfect v1.5 rig. From there, I began learning more about rigging and added my first custom feature in my third Minecraft rig edit, which was based on the Shulker Box rig. However, when the Smooth Stone rig was released, I abandoned the Shulker Box edit and started a new Minecraft rig edit project.
The Endertainer Rig project originally began in November 2020. However, due to my limited rigging experience and ongoing work on the Shulker Box rig edit at the time, I soon abandoned it. I returned to the project in February 2022, while still working on the Smooth Stone rig edit. As my rigging skills improved through these edit projects, I decided to stop making rig edits and focus on creating my own custom rig.
Initially, the project began as a Minecraft rig preset that was ready to use and could be modified. However, after releasing the Remastered version, I started experimenting with a modular rigging system inspired by the Auto Character System 3 (ACS3) plugin for Modo. This led to the creation of the Modular Character System (MCS).
Version History
Stage 1 & Stage 2
The original Minecraft rig preset, built in November 2020, was an experimental rig containing only a simple base rig and mesh. This version was never released and remained untouched until the project was restarted in February 2022.
R1 (Release 1)
The first official release of the rig rebuilt the base rig from Stage 2 from scratch, while reusing the original mesh. This release introduced features such as an advanced face editor, three different arm types, bendy bone wrists and ankles, and more.
R2 (Release 2)
The second release of the rig focused on new features and improvements, including a limb spline rig, enhanced face topology, leg twist, new finger controls, and more.
Remastered
The third release of the rig marked a significant departure from R2, removing certain features and introducing an experimental 2D facial system. Aside from these changes, it remained largely the same as R2.
MCS (Modular Character System)
The fourth release was the first to expand beyond a simple Minecraft rig preset into a full rigging system. Unlike the Remastered version, everything in this release was rebuilt from scratch. It introduced a new modular design, allowing rigs to be assembled from pre-made modules.
MCS2 (Modular Character System 2)
The fifth release, and the second MCS release, builds on the Modular Character System by updating existing modules and adding new ones. It also introduces a Rig UI auto-run script system, eliminating the need for a separate add-on.
MCS3 (Modular Character System 3)
The sixth release, and the third MCS release, is the final version built using the legacy rigging system. Future releases will only begin once the new rigging system, such as rigging nodes, is implemented. This version rebuilds and recategorizes many assets from MCS2 and introduces numerous improvements to the rigging system.
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