BlenRig vs MakeHuman

BlenRig is a free Blender add-on for auto-rigging and skinning biped characters. It creates a BlenRig armature, a mesh deform cage and lattices, and pre-rigged weight-transfer meshes for automatic character weighting. The system is intended to provide a feature-film-quality rig with an advanced facial system. In Blender, users add it from the Object Add panel and work with its controls in the View3D sidebar; the Rigging Assistant includes automated guides.

BlenRig 6 v5.0.0 is described as working with Blender 5 and later, while the README identifies BlenRig 6 as beta. Version 5.0.0 added mocap compatibility properties to limbs and disables simultaneous IK/FK by default. The project uses the GPL-3.0 license. Its README links to a Discord community and the creator’s YouTube channel. The maker says sales of the separately sold Fredegund skeleton support BlenRig 6 development; Fredegund also supports automatic integration with Mixamo animations through the Mixamo Addon.

MakeHuman creates customizable 3D human characters by blending adjustable features on a base mesh. Character targets let users alter traits from sex and muscle tone to earlobe shape. A built-in downloader provides access to community assets, and the application includes a render engine and parametric modeling. Meshes can be exported in Collada (DAE), FBX, Wavefront OBJ, STL, and Ogre3D formats; projects can also be saved in MHM format. Exporting meshes is one-way: MakeHuman cannot open those exported formats again. BVH is the listed rig format, and the documentation says MakeHuman 1.1.0 does not officially support animation inside the application. For Blender workflows, MPFB can communicate directly with MakeHuman instead of depending on file exports. It runs as desktop software on Linux, macOS, and Windows. The plan is free. The site says core assets including the base mesh, targets, and skins are CC0, with no paywall or email requirement for downloading.