Page 1 of 1

Manipulating bones via other bones

Posted: Thu Oct 27, 2016 12:22 am
by Sketch_Turner
Is there a way to move a bone using another bone (like an Angle Control Bone) while also retaining the ability to manipulate the bone itself?
Ugh, let me rephrase that...
The deal is, I'm working on a side view of the character, and some bones overlap: I can't select left hand, because right hand is straight above it. To resolve this conflict I've created another pair of bones to the side of the character and designated them as angle control bones for the hands. This is all well and good, but now I'm forced to ALWAYS use these offset bones when I want to manipulate hands, instead of moving the hands themselves. So basically I've exchange a major inconvenience for a minor one. Is there a better way to handle this situation?

Re: Manipulating bones via other bones

Posted: Thu Oct 27, 2016 12:29 am
by synthsin75
Add an extra child bone to the hand.

Re: Manipulating bones via other bones

Posted: Thu Oct 27, 2016 1:13 am
by Greenlaw
Not sure if this will help since I haven't seen your character or rig, but here are some more tips:

For side views, I avoid overlapping the right and left arm bones and artwork at frame 0--overlapping bones exactly just makes them too difficult to select. I don't think I've ever had to overlap limbs exactly to make a rig work, especially since the far side arm isn't typically visible anyway. Also, characters tend to look better when the limbs aren't exactly on top of each other.

When I'm in a situation where bones becomes difficult to select, like tail bones behind leg bones, I've started using the Ctrl-Shift-D (Design mode) toggle. This sends you to frame zero, where it's usually easier to make the bones selection, and pressing the shortcut again sends you back to the frame where you want to animate them.

Re: Manipulating bones via other bones

Posted: Thu Oct 27, 2016 11:14 pm
by Sketch_Turner
Greenlaw wrote:I've started using the Ctrl-Shift-D (Design mode) toggle. This sends you to frame zero, where it's usually easier to make the bones selection
Thanks for the tip. This trick is surely gonna come useful in the future.
synthsin75 wrote:Add an extra child bone to the hand.
That's probably the easiest solution. Thank you.