Skeleton Layer

Layer_other_skeleton_icon.png

Parameters of Skeleton Layers

The parameters of the skeleton layers are:

Name

Value

Type

Type_real_icon.png Z Depth Parameter

0.000000

real

Type_real_icon.png Opacity

0.500000

real

Type_string_icon.png Name

skeleton

string

Type_list_icon.png Bones

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

Type_string_icon.png Name

Bone 1

string

Parent

No Parent

bone_valuenode

Type_vector_icon.png Origin

0.00000, 0.00000

vector

Type_angle_icon.png Angle

0.00°

angle

Type_real_icon.png Local Length Scale

1.00000

real

Type_real_icon.png Bone Width

0.10000

real

Type_real_icon.png Recursive Length Scale

1.00000

real

Type_real_icon.png Tip Width

0.10000

real

Type_real_icon.png Z Depth Parameter

0.00000

real

Type_real_icon.png Length Setup

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.

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 list

  • Select 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 list

  • Select the corresponding Item (the according bone’s Handle will be highligthed whith red squares)

  • Click on the Value of Parent to change the parent or set the parent to none.

See Also