Armature
Blender's skeleton object
Also known as: Blender armature · Blender bones · Blender rig · Armature modifier · Blender pose mode
Definition
An armature is Blender's skeleton object, made of bones that you build in Edit Mode and pose in Pose Mode. A mesh follows the bones through an Armature modifier, which uses vertex groups for the weights. Parenting with Ctrl+P and Automatic Weights creates the groups and a first set of weights, which you then refine in Weight Paint Mode. Bone constraints, IK and drivers turn a skeleton into an animation rig.
In production
Name bones clearly with a side suffix such as .L and .R so mirroring works, keep the hierarchy simple for game rigs and put deform bones in a separate layer from control bones. When exporting to Unreal or Unity, export only the deform bones and apply the rotation and scale first. Rigify can generate a full control rig from a template.
