rigging

[Loolarge]

One of the best tutorials is on the Big Buck Bunny DVD. Unfortunately you need to download the whole DVD though (8 GB) http://www.archive.org/details/BigBuckBunny

[FreakyDude]

http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/BSoD/Introduction_to_Character_Animation

this one covers most if not all the basics and should get you right at the action.
The more advanced things are easy to figure out once you went through this. Once you finishe, look at other people's rigs (like the BBB rigs, which are more advanced examples)

There's a number of other rigs you could pick apart to see how they are made.
Look for mancandy, blenrig, little_fella, MTI_stickman/Devilman, ludwig, Otto, Delder, yagapayanata's 2,4,6 leg rigs. To name a few.

Mancandy is quite complex, blenrig is intense as well (very heavy but very good), my rigs use less advanced setups (MTI_stickman, little_fella) just very polished "standard" techniques. same for yagapayanata's rigs, very clean, simple, yet extremely effective. Ludwig uses actions for things like the foot roll, I'm not really a fan of using actions as part of the rig, and there are better ways to do what the action constraint in the ludwig rig does nowadays. Not to say it's bad, just a little old, and DO look at it to see how it was made. Delder is a nice funny little rig too, and can be good to learn from. Otto is also fun. Don't look at OSCAR, it's poorly done.

And instead of downloading a 8GB dvd, you could just order it from the blender store.
Not that downloading is illegal in this case, but it may be easier to just order it, and you suport the blender foundation with it.

Some more rigging stuff:
The BSOD tutorial (link above) explains envelopes and vertex groups. try both, but the mayority of riggers end up using vertex groups in the end because it gives more control. (Ludwig uses envelopes quite well though.)
There's a bone heat function that sorta automatically sorts out the weights (vertex groups) for your mesh, If you placed your bones correctly that is.
You can also use lattices. this is a cage of points you enclose (part of) the mesh with, and by pulling it's control points, you deform the mesh that is controlled by the lattice.
And more recently, meshdeform. You build a lowpoly deform cage, and rig that instead of the character. Than you let the character be deformed by the lowpoly "cage" instead. it's easier to get better deformations that way. Again, if you set up everything properly that is.

[dragonstooth257]

most helpful those links are.

you know I searched the blender website and could not locate those pages that are linked above. they certainly like to hide them.

thank you for that.

[Michael-Williamson]

the MANCANDY FAQ dvd is pretty good

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