BS-Tool

BS-TexRig

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

Why it exists

Most expression workflows either scrub image sequences, bury logic in Python, or trap the face inside an addon that must stay installed forever.

BS-TexRig does the opposite: you author once with the addon, then ship a normal .blend. The expression face is drivers + shaders — disable the addon and Pose Mode still works.

  • You already paint or bake expression textures
  • You want them live on a character in Blender
  • 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 sheet or UDIM tiles (Pro). Stack Eye / Mouth / … with alpha. 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. Live BG · border · Pick Glow, then Bake BG & Border so look survives without the addon.

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 / BS_TexRig_Udim.

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. That is the product promise.

Demo

Pose Mode drive — demo slot

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

Basic vs Pro

Same idea. Two editions. Current sale builds — Basic 1.0.73 · Pro 1.14.61 · Blender 4.2+.

Basic · 1.0.73

Atlas · Integer · one layer / one set · Scan / Build / Refresh / Apply Pick & Layout · Also Emission · Max Size 8K/16K · Auto Downscale · no hard expression count.

Pro · 1.14.61

Everything in Basic, plus UDIM · Blend · multi-layer / multi-set · Fill · Add/Update/Replace · Pad/Swap · Clear/Delete/Fit Limit · Expr Preview planes · Bake BG & Border · locked red Expr bones.

Quick start

  1. Install zip → Preferences → Add-ons → enable BS-TexRig.
  2. N-panel → BS-TexRig. Keep Standalone off unless you need a separate armature.
  3. Source folder → Scan → check images (list order = Expr_01, 02…).
  4. Mesh · Material · Layer (Pro: or Pose-select Ctrl → Fill eyedropper next to Build).
  5. Pack = Atlas (Basic/Pro) or UDIM (Pro, best for 4K / many faces).
  6. Mode Build → Build → Pose Mode → move Expr_Ctrl.

Pro — multi-layer

Same Control Set = one shared expression index. Author 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 — Expr Preview + Bake

  1. Make Previews (writes slot_XX.png + frozen slot_XX_art.png)
  2. Dial Solid BG · Tile Border · Flip · Pick Glow live
  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 stays driver-driven (panel checkbox) — 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

Do not / watch-outs

  • Do not Ctrl+J a Standalone Expr armature into the character after Build
  • Do not expect UDIM / Blend / multi-set / Pad / Swap / Preview Bake in Basic
  • Clear removes groups/drivers/bones — it does not delete 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 (Max Size / Auto Downscale). Heavy 4K stacks → use UDIM (Pro)

Editions at a glance

Basic 1.0.73 Pro 1.14.61
Packing Atlas Atlas + UDIM
Drive Integer Integer + Blend
Layers / sets One Multi (+ Fill · ▼ pickers)
Build modes Build Build · Add · Update · Replace
Texture tools Scan + Pad · Swap · Preview Atlas · Expr Previews · Bake look · delete checked
Pose helpers Apply Pick / Layout + Fit Limit · locked red Expr · Delete Selected
Cleanup — Clear Layer / This Set / All

Buyer manuals also ship inside each zip as README.md.
Market paste: Superhive / Gumroad use the same feature set described here.

Get BS-TexRig

Checkout on Gumroad (Basic + Pro). Docs stay on this site · support via GitHub.