All seven of TBSF's Sonic rigs for Blender are now free forever

The creator of fan 3D rigs from the Sonic the Hedgehog universe, known by the nickname TBSF, has opened up free access to their entire character collection for Blender — forever, according to the artist themselves. That means seven rigs: Shadow the Hedgehog, Amy Rose, Tails the Fox and four different Sonic rigs.

For animators this means a ready-made character library you can start working with right away: sculpting, shading and movement mechanics are already built. There is one restriction — the files are available for non-commercial use only.

What's inside the rigs

All the models are billed as animation-ready: both inverse and forward kinematics are supported, and correct squash and stretch is handled by deformation lattices and bendy bones. Squash and stretch is exactly what the cartoon plasticity expected of Sonic rests on, and building it yourself on top of someone else's model usually costs more time than making a rig from scratch.

The collection isn't mothballed, either: the artist continues to update and refine previously released rigs.

Shadow arrives in final version on October 1

The newest addition to the collection is Shadow the Hedgehog. Right now it is available as an early version, with the final one due on October 1. This rig has a quirk worth accounting for before you start: unlike the others, it was designed for the RigUI add-on, and the author recommends installing the add-on before editing the model.

Who these files will actually suit

TBSF warns outright: the rigs are made for intermediate-level users and are not suitable for beginners. Sculpting, shading and movement controls are covered by the author, but scene assembly, lighting and rendering are left to the user. Anyone counting on a ready-made template for one-click rendering will have to figure it out on their own — though the author runs a Discord server where questions are answered either by them or by other artists in the community.

All of TBSF's rigs can be downloaded from the Ko-fi page. The author clarified that future Sonic rigs will most likely be free as well.

Why this is happening

The sudden giveaway put part of the community on alert: users assumed TBSF was leaving the Sonic scene. The artist denied it — in their words, they are staying, but shifting focus to another direction. Judging by the wording, this is more about a change of creative priorities than about shutting the project down: updates to the earlier rigs are continuing.

The decision itself looks logical given how the economics of fan CG work. Rigs based on someone else's intellectual property always live in a legal grey area, so a paid model for fan assets is rarely long-lived, while a free giveaway with a ban on commercial use probably lowers the likelihood of claims from the rights holder.

There is a reputational side as well. For an artist working in a niche franchise, free rigs are one of the fastest ways to build presence: other people's animations made with their models travel further than any portfolio, and monetization shifts to donations and personal commissions. If the trend continues, the fan rigging community around Blender will look more and more like an open character library, where the earnings rest on the author's reputation while access to the files themselves stays free.

Will you take TBSF's rigs instead of your own Sonic builds? And what's stopping you — the non-commercial licence or the familiar control scheme?