Moho Forum

Hi guys. I'm really new here and am struggling a lot with bone rigging.

I'm looking at Tina the space woman example and I have questions. Unfortunately I don't know exactly what to ask.

I notice that Tina has only one bone group for the whole character. Is that the only way to do it? Is it possible to have a group such as "ARM" and have it contain it's own bones? Or do all bones need to be on one layer?

I notice that Tina has bones in her hair.. and they somehow have gravity. How does that work? There doesn't seem to be any way to get information on a bone as there is on a layer.

I notice that she has little bones on her feet that control the entire leg. How does that work?

The arms have little bones that act like an anchor. How does that work?

Sorry for all the questions. I have watched dozens of tutorials but I'm still very fuzzy.

Thanks!
Sam

I Will try to answer some of these.

smatthews1999 wrote:Hi guys. I'm really new here and am struggling a lot with bone rigging.

I'm looking at Tina the space woman example and I have questions. Unfortunately I don't know exactly what to ask.

I notice that Tina has only one bone group for the whole character. Is that the only way to do it? Is it possible to have a group such as "ARM" and have it contain it's own bones? Or do all bones need to be on one layer?

You can have as many bone layers as you want. You have have bone layers inside of bone layers. Just make a bone layer inside your main bone layer and name "arm" and make your bones in it.

I notice that Tina has bones in her hair.. and they somehow have gravity. How does that work? There doesn't seem to be any way to get information on a bone as there is on a layer.

That's bone physics, it's in the bone constraints window.

I notice that she has little bones on her feet that control the entire leg. How does that work?

Pretty sure that's a target bone, I am actually trying to learn those myself

The arms have little bones that act like an anchor. How does that work?

Don't know, sorry

Sorry for all the questions. I have watched dozens of tutorials but I'm still very fuzzy.

Thanks!
Sam

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

smatthews1999 wrote:Hi guys. I'm really new here and am struggling a lot with bone rigging.

I'm looking at Tina the space woman example and I have questions. Unfortunately I don't know exactly what to ask.

Hi, I traced and rigged that character, so I think I can help a little

I notice that Tina has only one bone group for the whole character. Is that the only way to do it? Is it possible to have a group such as "ARM" and have it contain it's own bones? Or do all bones need to be on one layer?

No, you are not forced to keep everything inside one single layer, you can do whatever you want or need. Anyway, having only one bone layer helps to keep things in order and easy to animate. For example, if you create a bone layer and specific bones on it for each arm and leg, you will have to animate each layer independently, making extremely hard the animation itself, because you will be forced to constantly select each bone layer to add or edit keyframes. Also (besides more cons), it will be harder to get an overall body performance.

I notice that Tina has bones in her hair.. and they somehow have gravity. How does that work? There doesn't seem to be any way to get information on a bone as there is on a layer.

That bones have checked "independent angle" in the bone constraints pop up window (in the select bone tool proprieties). That makes the bones be pointing always in the same direction, independently to its parents.

I notice that she has little bones on her feet that control the entire leg. How does that work?

It's a target bone. To learn how to setup that, you can search for tutorials and webinars in the Smith Micro youtube page.

The arms have little bones that act like an anchor. How does that work?

Do you mean the bones over the shoulders? They are controlled bones, they rotate when another bone rotates, but at a different amount. For example, I can tell the software "the bone called B2 will rotate when B1 rotates, but the half (0.5) of its degrees". So, every time B1 rotates 100 degrees, B2 will rotate 50.

Sorry for all the questions. I have watched dozens of tutorials but I'm still very fuzzy.

Don't worry. Just try to watch some webinars. Personally, I have presented several and always try to put everything as clear as possible.

Thank you for your response.

I have since found some videos about target bones and even independent angle. Next Control Bones.

You guys have done a really good job documenting this stuff. I have watched like 50 videos and rigged the same character like 10 times. It's starting to sink in.

Thanks again.