Bones Tutorial      by Brett Fattori
Part II   Adjusting the Joints

axes
Here's that joint again, a little smaller, for reference. We're gonna start out by popping up the Joint Attributes panel. You just need to right-click on the Custom Joint c joint tool. You'll see something similar to the panel below appear. The blue "hinge" is the Pitch and the red "hinge" is the Yaw. We're going to use this panel to adjust the limits. And because trueSpace has immediate feedback, you might even see why I prefer to use this method over the visual one.

The Min and Max values set the limits of the "hinge". Try clicking and dragging the mouse on the double arrow of the Min value for Pitch. You'll see that the limit moves, either making the arc longer or shorter. Now try it for the Max value for Pitch. Adjust these limits for the blue hinge so that it properly sets the range of motion. The arc portion, in my testing, should run through the body if the axis modifier runs through the body. If the axis modifier runs down the arm, then the arc will run through the arm. You'll probably want to do this with a Front view. Joint Attributes

  
After you've adjusted the limits for the blue "hinge", you will want to test these settings with the model. You can do this without leaving the Joint Attributes panel just by clicking and dragging the mouse on the double arrow of the Value parameter for Pitch. Make sure that the arm travels through its entire range of motion without colliding with any other parts of the body. Once this is done, repeat these steps for the red "hinge". Switch to a Top or Left view to work with the red "hinge", depending how the arm is oriented. Use the Top view if the arm is outstretched. Use the Left view if the arm is hanging next to the body. Once you have a feel for adjusting the joints, every other joint will come naturally. Continue on with the elbows, hips, and knees until you've covered all joints.
Fig. 5 
One important thing to remember, when working with joints, is how to rotate a joint around its axis of rotation. You just have to right-click on the end of the axis modifier as in Figure 5. You'll need to do this because, although trueSpace does a good job at aligning the joints to their proper rotation, it isn't perfect.
For the neck, we're going to use a special 3D Spherical Joint where we'll add in the Roll axis, which we'll cover next. As for the center joint in the chest, not the one in the waist area, we'll want to make that one a 0D Fixed Joint so that it has no range of motion at all.

© Copyright 1998, Brett Fattori   

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