Skeleton Layer¶
Parameters of Skeleton Layers¶
The parameters of the skeleton layers are:
Name |
Value |
Type |
0.000000 |
real |
|
0.500000 |
real |
|
skeleton |
string |
|
list (Static List) |
list |
Summary¶
In the skeleton layer, each vertex is influenced by a weighted average combination of bones maybe from different skeletons?
There are two ways to make a vector be influenced by bone(s). First is the Link to Bone action that would give a 100% of influence of one bone to one vector. Second is the Link to Skeleton that is a semiautomatic way to give weighted influence to a vector from all the bones that overlaps its influence area over the vector position. The more covered the vector is by the influence area, the higher is the influence weight. In any case you can manually specify the bone and the influence that you want by editing the values in the vector (sub)parameters. We need to modify the bone(s) with handles to perform the indirect movement to the vectors that are influenced by it(them).
Skeleton construction¶
Add a Skeleton layer
:
If your Canvas is empty you can do that from the main or Canvas: Caret menus
Layer -> New Layer -> Other -> Skeleton
.If your canvas is not empty, right clicking inside the Layers Panel.
Once you have a Skeleton layer
, the first bone appears. You have
created the first bone of your Skeleton, this is your first parent
bone.
Each bones have the following Handle to control them :
Origin
, Angle
, Local Length Scale
, Bone Width
and
Tip Width
. Take a look inside the Parameters Panel of the Skeleton layer
, those handles are
relative to some of those values (with also some advanced parameters).
From the Workarea, with the Bones Handle you can easily move and adjust part of your Skeleton.
Now, you can had child bones :
Right click on any Handle of the parent bone you want and select
Create Child Bone
.Repeat the operation, choosing accordingly the parent bone of your future bone (the parent of a hand bone is the arm, the parent bone of a finger is the hand bone…), to create your Skeleton.
When created, a Skeleton layer
, is Canvas: Layer Menu : the layer is visible in the
Workarea but disabled in the final Render.
Parameters of a Bone¶
The parameters of a bone are:
Name |
Value |
Type |
Bone 1 |
string |
|
Parent |
No Parent |
bone_valuenode |
0.00000, 0.00000 |
vector |
|
0.00° |
angle |
|
1.00000 |
real |
|
0.10000 |
real |
|
1.00000 |
real |
|
0.10000 |
real |
|
0.00000 |
real |
|
1.00000 |
real |
Parent¶
Angle¶
Local Length Scale¶
Bone Width¶
Has Tip Width
, Bone Width
is used to set the influence of the
bone before the use of Link to Skeleton
action.
Bone Width
parameter can be adjusted by the witdh
Handle. When adjusting the Bone Width
, the bone’s shape
change accordingly.
Recursive Length Scale¶
Tip Width¶
Has Bone Width
, Tip Width
is used to set the influence of the
bone before the use of Link to Skeleton
action. Tip Width
parameter can be adjusted by the witdh Handle. When
adjusting the Tip Width
, the bone’s shape change accordingly.
Z-Depth¶
This parameter can be used to change the ‘depth’ (order) of a Bone in a Skeleton Layer.
Length Setup¶
Skeleton / Bones actions¶
Create Child Bone¶
When you add a Skeleton Layer
, only one bone is created. In order to
create a usable skeleton, you will need to add more bones.
Right clicking on any Handle of bone display a contextual
menu. From this menu select Create Child Bone
and a new child bone
will be created. This child bone will move accordingly to his parent.
Link to Bone¶
Link to Bone
link artwork, for example handles of a shape created
with the Spline Tool, to a bone.
Select a single or multiple handles from your artwork, right click on a
bone and from the contextual menu, select Link to Bone
. Now when you
move the Bone, the selected handles also move.
See it in action in bones dev part 5
Link to Skeleton¶
Before you use Link to Skeleton
you should adjust the Bone width
and Tip width
of each bones of you skeleton to set the bone shape.
Select one or more handles from your artwork, select the
Skeleton layer
right click on it and from the contextual menu,
select Link to Skeleton
. All the handles covered by the bone shape
will be automatically linked.
See it in action : Bones dev part 7
Disconnect¶
If you want to disconnect / unlink a bone from the part of the artwork it is linked to.
From the Layers Panel, select the Skeleton Layer
From the Parameters Panel, open the
Bones
listSelect the corresponding
Item
(the according bone’s Handle will be highligthed whith red squares)Right click to open the context menu and select
Disconnect
.
Change parent¶
You can also change the parent of a bone in the skeleton, even during animation.
From the Layers Panel, select the Skeleton Layer
From the Parameters Panel, open the
Bones
listSelect the corresponding
Item
(the according bone’s Handle will be highligthed whith red squares)Click on the
Value
ofParent
to change the parent or set the parent tonone
.
See Also¶
To deform raster images : Skeleton Deformation Layer.
Doc:Basic_Bone_Tutorial
A SIF-file of a rigged character using bones can be found here
Riggedchar.zip