About the Rig
Introduction
Endertainer Rig is a character rig for Blender specifically targeted towards Minecraft/Cubic-styled characters. This rig is the result of one and a half years of experimenting with making custom rig edits and is the successor of the SB (Shulker Box) EndEdit and the SS (Smooth Stone) EndEdit project. The goal of the Endertainer Rig project is to make a rig with simplicity and customization as the focus.
Development History
It all started somewhere in mid to late 2020. At that time, I made my first Minecraft rig edit based on DarthLilo's LACM rig. The LACM rig edit mostly contains simple bug fixes and is made for personal use. But it all changed when I found a way to add a custom bone shape to a canceled Minecraft rig edit project based on the PixelPerfect v1.5 rig. From there, I started learning about rigging and added my first custom feature on the third Minecraft rig edit based on the Shulker Box rig. But when the Smooth Stone rig was released, I soon abandoned the Shulker Box rig edit to start a new Minecraft rig edit project.
The Endertainer Rig project originally started in November 2020. However, due to my lack of rigging experience and the Shulker Box rig edit I'm currently also working on at that time, I soon abandoned the project. I later came back to it in February 2022. At that time, I was still working on the Smooth Stone rig edit. But as my rigging experience increased with the rig edit projects, I decided to stop making rig edits and pursue creating my own custom rig.
At first, the project started as a Minecraft rig preset (ready to use rig that you can modify). However, after the release of the Remastered version. I began to experiment with the idea of a modular rigging system inspired by the Auto Character System 3 (ACS3) plugin for Modo. Thus, the Modular Character System (shortened to MCS) was born.
Version History
Stage 1 & Stage 2
The original Minecraft rig preset build from November 2020. An experimental rig that only contains a simple base rig and mesh. This version never saw the light of day, as it stayed untouched until the project was restarted in February 2022.
R1 (Release 1)
The first release of the rig. The base rig from Stage 2 was scrapped and rebuilt from scratch, but the mesh was reused. This first release includes features such as an advanced face editor, 3 different Arm types, bendy bone wrist & ankles, and more.
R2 (Release 2)
The second release of the rig. It mainly contains new features and improvements. Like the addition of a limb spline rig, improved face topology, leg twist, new finger control, and more.
Remastered
The third release of the rig. This version deviates a lot from R2 by removing some features and experimenting with a 2D Facial system. Other than that, it's mostly the same as R2.
MCS (Modular Character System)
The fourth release and the first expanded to a rigging system rather than just a Minecraft rig preset. Unlike the Remastered version, everything in this version was rebuilt from scratch. This version uses a new modular design that allows assembling rigs from pre-made modules.
MCS2 (Modular Character System 2)
The fifth release and the second MCS release. This version builds upon the MCS system by rebuilding some of the modules and adding new ones. This version also introduces a new Rig UI autorun script system that replaces the need to install a separate add-on.
MCS3 (Modular Character System 3)
The sixth release and the third MCS release. This version is the last version built with the legacy rigging system, as future versions will only be started once the new rigging system (such as the rigging nodes) is added. This version rebuilds and recategorizes many assets from MCS2. It also brings many improvements to the rigging system.
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