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412 Chapter 5: Creating Geometry
Bone Pivot Position group
Bone Edit Mode—L ets you change the lengths of
bones and their positions relative to one another.
When this button is on, you can change the length
of a bone by moving its child bone. In effect, you
can scale or stretch a bone by moving its child
bonewhileinthismode. Youcanusethistool
both before and after assigning an IK chain to the
bone structure.
When Bone Edit Mode is on, you cannot animate,
and when Auto Key or Set Key is on, Bone Edit
Mode is unavailable. Tu rn off Auto/Set Key to edit
bones.
Note: MovingaboneinBoneEditmodeaffects
the length of both the child and its parent.Ifthe
bones aren’t spatially aligned in the usual way (for
example, if you are using other object s as bones),
this mi ght have unexpected results.
Bone Tools g roup
Cr e ate Bone s —B e gins the b one-creation process.
Clicking this button is the same as clicking Create
panel > Systems > Bones (page 1–404).
Cr e ate End —Creates a nub bone at the end of the
currently selected bone. If the selected bone is not
at the end of a chain, the nub is linked in sequence
between the currently selected bone and the next
bone in the chain.
Remove B one—Removes the currently selected
bone. The bone’s parent bone is stretched to reach
the removed bone’s pivot point, and any children
of the removed bone are linked to its p arent. A ny
IK chains that included the removed bone will
remain intact.
Connect Bones—Creates a connecting bone
between the current ly selected bone and another
bone. When you click this button, a dotted line
appears in the active viewpor t from the first
selected bone. Move the cursor to another bone to
create a new connecting bone. The first selected
bone will become a parent to the connecting bone,
whichisinturnaparenttothesecondselected
bone.
Delete B one—Deletes the currently selected bone,
removing all its parent/child associations. A nub is
placed at the end of the deleted b one’s parent. Any
IK chains that included this bone become invalid.
Rea ssign R oot—Makes the currently selected bone
the root (parent) of the bone structure.
If the current bone is the root, clicking this has no
effect. If the current bone is the end of the chain,
the chain is completely reversed. If the current
bone is in the middle of the chain, the chain
becomesabranchinghierarchy.
Refine—Splitsaboneintwo.ClickRefine,and
then click a bone where you want it to split.
Mirror—Opens the Bone Mirror dialog (see
following), which lets you create mirror copies of
selected bones without changi ng the sign of the
bones ’ scale. Instead, Mirror flips one of the bone
axes: Y or Z. You can specify the mir roring axis
and t he flip axis with the dialog controls.
Bone Mirror Dialog
Opens when you click the Mirror button. Use it
to specify the mirroring axis, the flip axis, and an
offset va lue.
While the dialog is open, you can see a preview of
the mirrored b one(s) in the v iewports. C lick OK
to create the bones, or Cancel to prevent creation.