Bone Strength & Bind points?

[SuperSGL]

I was checking out characters from the library Scarlett & Bessie and I was trying to figure out the Hair on Scarlett seems to move like an independent angle as well as the flaps on the hat of Bessie (when the head or neck bones are translated). The bones have bone strength on them and they both seem to have a partial point binding attached as well. Am I seeing this correctly? Can you set up a character in this way? Also none of the head or neck bones have smart actions attached. It's a good look and I'm just trying to figure out how it's done.

[synthsin75]

On Scarlett, use Bone>Show All Bones. The hair, side hair, and kerchief knot are dynamic bones parented to tiny independent angle bones.

EDIT: Everything is just flexi-bound. The head turn moves the points relative to the bones.

[SuperSGL]

I missed those, have to check that out Thanks synthsin75!

[Greenlaw]

Re:

The bones have bone strength on them and they both seem to have a partial point binding attached as well. Am I seeing this correctly? Can you set up a character in this way?

Absolutely! I do this all the time. Flex-binding is great for getting 'squishy' organic deformations but sometimes you want parts of a drawing to have more rigidity.

Here's something I just happen to be working on that demonstrates this. In the below image, the leg on the left is using only flexi-binding and on the right, we have flexi-binding with point binding on the toes. At this stage, no smart bone actions are used to tweak the deformations yet:



Notice that when I rotate the toe bone, the foot on the left side loses volume and shape while the foot on the right looks more correct. The only difference is that in the right side example, three points on the toes have point-binding to bind them to the toe bone, and the rest of the layer is using flexi-binding to all four leg bones. Otherwise, the rigs on both sides are identical.

[SuperSGL]

Thanks Greenlaw! I'm doing more animations and I'm trying to get a better look. This seems to be the way to go. I still have trouble with the bone strength at it's smallest settings (and still have an effect) I'm still seeing a lot of movements on other parts of my character. [and I still see the manual suggesting not using point binding]

[Greenlaw]

...I still see the manual suggesting not using point binding]

Uh, yeah, that's not right.

Point Binding has been essential in my daily work, as is Flex-binding and Layer Binding. Each binding method has different uses and produces different results. All of them are incredibly important options even for a simple rig.

[SuperSGL]

Most of my characters have nothing but point binding, I'm starting to get comfortable with the bone strengths and will use it on the head and sometimes torso. Layer binding I pretty much reserve for added items to the character like a hat or something they might be holding. I think I might of used it on the neck of one of my characters as well. Either way I'm always using a bunch of Smart Actions