3ds Max 2012 Bible - Kelly L. Murdock [408]
3. In the Top viewport, click once at the pelvis and then again at the mid-abdomen, the base of the neck, and the end of the nose. Then right-click to end the bones chain.
4. While still in Bones mode, click below the pelvis and create an additional five bones to define the tail. Then right-click to end the chain. Select the first bone in the tail chain and link it to the first joint with the Select and Link tool that moves from the pelvis to the nose, which is the root joint.
Tip
If you can't see the bones to make the link, then hide the body so the bones are clearly visible. •
5. Click on the Bones button in the Create panel, select the bone just in front of the legs in the Top viewport (the cursor changes to a cross-hair when it is over a bone), and drag to the top to form the left shoulder, left upper-arm and left lower-arm bones. Right-click to end the chain. Repeat to create bones for the left leg.
6. Select the Animation⇒Bone Tools menu command to open the Bone Tools dialog box. Select all the bones in the left arm and leg and click the Mirror button. In the Bone Mirror dialog box, select the Y-axis and click OK.
7. Click the Select Objects button on the main toolbar to exit Bones mode, and select and name each bone object so it can be easily identified later.
Tip
The Schematic View window is a good interface for quickly labeling bones. •
Figure 38.3 shows the completed bones system for the alligator.
FIGURE 38.3
This bones system for an alligator was easy to create.
Using the Bone Tools
After you've created a bones system, you can use the Bone Tools to edit and work with the bones system. You access these tools from a panel that is opened using the Animation⇒Bone Tools menu command. Figure 38.4 shows this panel of tools, which includes three separate rollouts: Bone Editing Tools, Fin Adjustment Tools, and Object Properties.
FIGURE 38.4
The Bone Tools palette includes several buttons for working with bones systems.
Reordering bones
You can use the transform buttons on the main toolbar to move, rotate, and scale a bone along with all its children, but if you want to transform the parent without affecting any of the children, you need to open the Bone Tools panel using the Animation⇒Bone Tools menu command. Bone Edit Mode lets you move and realign a bone without affecting its children.
Clicking the Remove Bone button removes the selected bone and reconnects the bone chain by stretching the child bone. If you hold down the Shift key while removing a bone, the parent is stretched. Clicking the Delete Bone button deletes the selected bone and adds an End bone to the last child.
Caution
Using the Delete key to delete a bone does not add an End bone, and the bone chain does not work correctly with an IK Solver. •
If a bone exists that isn't connected to another bone, you can add an End bone to the bone using the Create End button. The bone chain must end with an End bone in order to be used by an IK Solver.
The Connect Bones button lets you connect the selected bone with another bone. After clicking this button, you can drag a line from the selected bone to another bone to connect the two bones.
Use the Reassign Root button to reverse the chain and move the End bone from the parent to the last child.
Refining and mirroring bones
As you start to work with a bones system that you've created, you may discover that the one long bone for the backbone of your monster is too long to allow the monster to move like you want. If this happens, you can refine individual bones using the Refine button. This button appears at the bottom of the Bone Tools section of the Bone Editing Tools rollout.
Clicking the Refine button enables you to select bones in the viewport. Every bone that you select is divided into two bones at the location where you click. Click on the Refine button again to exit Refine mode.
The Mirror button lets you create a mirror copy of the selected bones. This button makes the Bone Mirror dialog box appear, where you can select the Mirror Axis and