Getting Started

1. Open HandRig_Skeleton_v1.2.blend. The rig (HAND_rig) and the 29 bones are ready to use and the 32 poses are preloaded.
2. Install the control panel (recommended): Edit > Preferences > Get Extensions > menu (top right) > Install from Disk and pick handrig_skeleton-1.2.1.zip. If an older “handrig_skeleton” add-on is installed, remove it and restart Blender first.
3. In the 3D Viewport press N and open the Hand tab, with the HAND_rig armature selected.

The Hand Panel

• Poses – 32 poses. Click to apply, use the Transition slider to blend from the previous position, and the keyframe button to key the fingers. The Mirror toggle flips the hand (left/right) and keeps the pose.
• Bone Thickness – Global, Shafts and Joint ends sliders with Slim, Natural, Robust and Heavy presets. Thickness is radial: bone length and joint positions never change. Keep values between 0.7 and 1.3 to avoid neighbouring bones intersecting.
• Damage – Presets (Pristine, Aged, Weathered, Brittle, Ruined) plus Erosion, Chips, Chip Size, Chip Density, Mesh Detail and Seed. Break Random Bones fractures several bones at once, Heal All Fractures restores them. Select a bone to edit its fracture: position, gap, jaggedness, tilt, fragment shift and twist. Freeze Damage (apply) bakes the damage into the mesh for export.
• Bone Look – Presets (Clean, Aged, Cemetery, Bleached, Bloody, Burnt) and every shader slider: age, stain, cracks, dirt, mold, bleach, pitting, blood, wetness, joint stain, porosity.
• Studio Lighting – Adds a warm museum-style key/fill/rim setup and a dark gradient world. Use Cycles for the best result.

Important: using it next to HandRig

If the original HandRig (Realistic Rigged Hand) add-on is also enabled, disable it while you work with this product. Both add-ons use the same Hand tab and panel names, so only one of them can show its panel.

Without the add-on

Everything works without the add-on: poses are driven by custom properties on the rig object, thickness and damage are Geometry Nodes modifiers on each bone (BoneThickness, BoneDamage), and the look is a single shader group (BoneHorrorLook) in the BONE_horror material.

Tips

• Switch Damage on off while posing for a faster viewport and back on for rendering.
• The rig works in meters at real scale (about 18.5 cm from wrist to middle fingertip).
• Poses from the Realistic Rigged Hand pose pack can be imported with Import Pose Pack.

Requirements

Blender 5.2 or newer. Previewed and tuned in Cycles.