Overview

This product is a rigged, animated tortoise plus a small add-on (Turtle Rig Tools) that lets you draw a path and make the tortoise walk along it inside Blender.

Files

• Tortoise_Rigged.blend — the scene. The texture is packed, nothing to relink.
• turtle_tools.py — the add-on. It is also stored inside the .blend as a text block.
• FBX and GLB folders — the same asset exported for other engines (optional).

Installing the add-on

1. Edit > Preferences > Add-ons > Install from Disk... and pick turtle_tools.py.
2. Enable Turtle Rig Tools.
3. In the 3D Viewport press N and open the Turtle tab.

Without installing: open the .blend, go to the Text Editor, select the turtle_tools.py text block and press Run Script (current session only).

The panel (N > Turtle)

• Animation — Walk / Idle / Rest; changes the active action and the frame range.
• Play/Stop, frame field, reset (back to origin at frame 1).
• Gait — Leg stride, Knee bend, Advance per cycle, Walk cycle, Idle cycle. Rebuild actions regenerates the walk and idle actions with these values; Plant all 4 feet recalculates the per-leg offset that keeps every foot on the floor.
• Path — Draw / Clear / Follow path, plus the current path length.
• Export — Export FBX writes an FBX with the path motion baked (option: copy textures).

Drawing a path

1. Press Draw. Dragging with the left mouse button paints the path on the floor; Esc or right click cancels.
2. Press Follow path. The tortoise snaps to the first drawn point and walks the path, heading following the tangent. The scene frame range is set to the walk duration.
3. Clear (the X button) removes the path and returns the rig to a normal walk.

Animation clips

• Turtle_Walk — 48 fr, 4-phase walk, in place.
• Turtle_WalkFwd — 48 fr, the same walk with root motion (0.08 m per cycle).
• Turtle_Run — 24 fr, faster gait.
• Turtle_Idle — 96 fr, breathing and head motion.
• Turtle_Eat — 72 fr, head-down pecking.
• Turtle_FollowPath — the walk baked along the drawn curve (demo).

About the rig

• 13 bones, 12 deform: root, trunk, neck_01, neck_02, head, front/rear upper+lower L/R.
• The carapace and plastron are weighted 100% to trunk: the shell is rigid.
• Legs, neck and head use distance-based weights with smoothing.
• If you need a different size, scale the armature object, not the mesh alone.

Troubleshooting

• Panel missing — the add-on is not enabled. Use Preferences > Add-ons, or run the text block described above.
• Feet slightly above or below the floor after changing the gait — press Plant all 4 feet.
• Path does not start where expected — the tortoise always starts at the first point you drew; redraw the path if needed.

Changelog

1.0.0 — First release: rig, 5 clips, path tool, FBX/GLB exports.