BS-Tool

BS-TexRig

Painted texture maps → Pose Mode bone picker. After Build, the face runs on pure Blender drivers — clients and animators need no addon.

Why it exists

Rigging dozens of expression textures by hand means repeating material nodes, texture indices, and drivers for every character.

BS-TexRig turns an ordered image folder into a controllable texture rig in a few steps. Build once, then ship a normal .blend: the finished face runs on Blender drivers + shaders, even with the addon disabled.

  • You need to rig dozens of expression textures without hand-building drivers and material nodes
  • You want a fast, repeatable texture-rig setup from an image folder
  • You need to hand files to clients / animators without friction

What you get

The advantages that matter in production — not a feature dump.

Pure-driver handoff

After Build, playback needs no addon. Pure Blender drivers + material groups. Safe to pass the file around.

Pose Mode picker

Move Expr_Ctrl onto red expression bones — Integer snap, or soft Blend between neighbors (Pro). No timeline scrubbing.

Your textures, live

Atlas in both editions; UDIM and alpha-stacked Eye / Mouth layers in Pro. Keeps your painted look, not a mesh morph.

Multi-character safe (Pro)

Multiple Control Sets and characters on one scene — Build / Rebuild stay set-scoped so face B does not wipe face A.

Viewport Expr Previews (Pro)

Content-cropped preview planes on Expr bones. Bake BG & Border preserves the background/border look; Pick Glow remains a separate live option.

Production repair tools (Pro)

Fill eyedropper · Add / Update / Replace · Pad · Swap · Clear Layer / Set · Delete Selected · Fit Limit · Refresh after Undo.

Pack → Build

Scan a folder of expression images, pick mesh + material, then Build.

Prefer Standalone OFF on production characters so the picker lives on the character armature.

Empty Out Folder → tiles land next to Source under BS_TexRig_Atlas/<LayerName> / BS_TexRig_Udim/<LayerName>.

Demo

Pack & Build — demo slot

Drop a GIF or loop here later
Pack expression textures, then Build the picker rig

Pose → ship

Select the yellow Expr_Ctrl, move it onto a target bone — the face switches (or blends).

Disable BS-TexRig in Preferences — the face still drives.

Demo

Pose Mode drive — demo slot

Drop a GIF or loop here later
Drive expressions with Expr_Ctrl in Pose Mode

Basic vs Pro

Choose Basic ($10) for a focused Atlas picker or Pro ($25) for the full production workflow · Blender 4.2+.

Basic

Atlas · Integer · one layer / one set · Build Target Auto Fill · scene-wide Clear All · Scan / Build / Refresh / Apply Pick & Layout · Also Emission · Max Size 8K/16K (hardware-dependent) · Auto Downscale · English/한국어 Help Language for Help tab and hover descriptions (UI labels stay English) · no fixed expression count within Atlas/GPU limits. No planned feature updates — Basic stays maintenance / bugfix; new features ship in Pro.

Pro

Shares the core Atlas/Integer workflow, then adds UDIM · Blend · multi-layer / multi-set · image sequences · Add/Update/Replace · Pad/Swap · selected-layer Clear · Floating/Solid Preview · Bake BG & Border · English/한국어 Help Language for Help tab and hover descriptions (UI labels stay English) · locked red Expr bones. Active development continues on Pro.

Quick start

  1. Install zip → Preferences → Add-ons → enable BS-TexRig.
  2. N-panel → Textures & Material → Source → Scan (list order = Expr_01, 02…).
  3. Basic: select the target mesh → Auto Fill Armature · Mesh · Material (an existing Ctrl also works). Pro: choose Armature · Control Set · Mesh · Material · Layer. Keep Standalone off unless you need a separate armature.
  4. Pack = Atlas (Basic/Pro) or UDIM (Pro, best for 4K / many faces).
  5. Set Layout / Snap Ratio, then Build.
  6. In Pro, Load/Pad/Swap/Refresh/Clear use the selected Ctrl/Expr owner. Layer actions also require one associated BS-TexRig group selected in the Shader Editor.

Pro — multi-layer

Same Control Set = one shared expression index. Keep matching slot counts and order for Eye / Mouth / ….

  • Missing art on a slot → Pad (transparent tile) so the stack does not go pink
  • Different counts → New Control Set (separate Ctrl), do not force Add on the same set
  • One tile swap → check 1 image + select 1 Expr bone → Swap
  • Stacked layers: prefer PNG with alpha

Pro — Build / Add / Update / Replace

Mode Meaning
Build First setup / rebuild bones + target Layer
Add New Layer name on the same Control Set (Eye exists → type Mouth) — not “+1 expression on Eye”
Update Same Layer · keep current slots · append NEW files only
Replace Same Layer · rebuild from the checked list only

Add one expression to Eye: list + a new file → check it → Update.
Do not check an already-built image and press Update. Do not use Add for that.

Pro — sequences (loops)

  • One frame folder = one [Seq] list row (Scan or +Seq). Mix with stills OK.
  • Loop ON = timeline play; Loop OFF = integer Frame 1…N (Layer Controls / Preview).
  • Play in Material Preview / Rendered. Solid Preview keeps the first frame only.
  • Per-layer Loc/Rot/Scale transform: Material/Rendered only (Solid ignores Mapping).
  • Multi-layer Solid Transfer moves all layers together — per-layer motion = Material Preview.
  • Still ↔ sequence: edit list → Update or Replace (not Swap).

Pro — Expr Preview + Bake

  1. Select the Control Set Ctrl, then Make Previews (Floating + optional Solid)
  2. Choose Active Layer (fast) or Composite Set (all layers), then adjust BG · Border · Flip
  3. Bake BG & Border — locks BG / border / flip into the display image
    (art file stays intact so you can re-Bake colors)
  4. Pick Glow is optional, driver-driven, and not part of Bake

Always Make Previews once before the first Bake on that set.

Layout & Pick

  • Apply Pick — update snap / Blend zone from Snap Ratio (bones stay put)
  • Apply Layout — rebuild bone layout from Spacing / Columns (keeps lengths when possible)
  • Blend (Pro) → Layout Horizontal Line recommended (Grid can blend diagonal neighbors)
  • Expr bones overlap on first Blend build? Lower Snap Ratio, then Apply Pick
  • Optional Fit Ctrl Limit (Pro) — clamp Ctrl to the Expr grid

Help

  • Do not Ctrl+J a Standalone Expr armature into the character after Build
  • Do not expect UDIM / Blend / multi-set / Pad / Swap / sequences / Bake BG & Border in Basic
  • Clear Layer removes the selected layer mapping; Clear Set removes that set's bones, drivers, properties, previews, and mapped layers
  • Clear never deletes generated BS_TexRig_* files on disk
  • After heavy Undo (especially Delete Selected) → Refresh if the face looks wrong
  • You supply expression images — the addon does not paint textures
  • Atlas = one GPU sheet. 16K support depends on the GPU; use Max Size / Auto Downscale. Heavy 4K stacks → use UDIM (Pro)
  • Sequence Solid = first frame only — do not expect Workbench to animate loops
  • Solid multi-layer Transfer = all layers together (Workbench Texture = one Image + one UV)
  • After Build, dragging Expr_Ctrl may lower viewport FPS (snap drivers per Expr slot + material Index). Expected even without Floating/Solid Preview — pure-driver handoff tradeoff. More slots cost more.

Editions at a glance

Basic Pro
Packing Atlas Atlas + UDIM
Drive Integer Integer + Blend
Layers / sets One Multi · selected Ctrl/Shader-layer actions
Build modes Build Build · Add · Update · Replace
Sequences — Folder slots · Solid first frame
Texture tools Scan · Load · list editing + Pad · Swap · Preview Atlas · Floating/Solid Preview · Bake BG & Border · Delete Checked Files
Pose helpers Apply Pick / Layout + Fit Limit · locked red Expr · Delete Selected
Cleanup Clear All Basic Setups in Scene Clear Layer / This Control Set

Buyer manuals also ship inside each zip as README.md.

Get BS-TexRig

Checkout on Gumroad (Basic + Pro). Docs stay on this site · support by email (kobinseol@gmail.com).