🔹 Steps to Finish a Head & Neck Rig
1. Build the Bone Chain
Add Neck bones (1–3, depending on realism).
Add Head bone (parented to top neck bone).
Add a Jaw bone if you plan on facial animation.
2. Add Controls (Control Bones)
Create a Head Control bone (often a circle or custom shape) placed around the head.
Create a Neck Control bone if you want independent chest-to-neck motion.
Parent/Constraint the Head bone to the Head Control.
3. Set Constraints
Use Copy Rotation or Child Of constraints so:
The head bone follows the control bone.
Neck bends naturally when the control moves.
Optionally add Limit Rotation so the head can’t twist unnaturally.
4. Weight Painting
Make sure the head vertices are assigned to the Head bone’s vertex group.
Neck vertices → Neck bones.
Smooth the weights so deformation looks natural when bending.
5. Optional: Advanced Features
Look At Controller → Add a target object or bone so the head always looks at it.
IK/FK Switch → Some rigs use IK for head aiming, FK for manual posing.
Custom Properties + Drivers → For toggling options (like “Head Follow” ON/OFF).
6. Testing
Switch to Pose Mode → move the Head Control.
Check if the neck bends smoothly and the head follows naturally.
Fix weight painting if the mesh deforms badly.
🔹 End Result
Animator sees only the Control Bones (nice shapes like circles/arrows).
Deform Bones stay hidden in another bone layer.
The head can tilt, nod, rotate, and follow targets smoothly.
✅ In short:
Finishing a Head and Neck rig means adding control bones, constraints, weight painting, and optional features so that the animator can move the head/neck easily without touching deform bones directly.
