Creating and Editing Character Bones

Creating and Editing Character Bones

Building the Spine

 

Autodesk 3ds Max Tutorials > Character Animation Tutorials > Character Animation without Biped > Creating and Editing Character Bones > 

Building the Leg Bones

In this lesson, you'll use the 3ds Max Bones to create a character’s leg bones.

If you have never created bones before, it is recommended that you do the lesson Creating a Bone Structure in the Introduction to Character Rigging tutorial before doing this lesson.

Prepare the scene:

1. Open tut_char_bone_file01.max from the tutorials\character_animation\character_bones folder.

   This character was built standing in what is known as a neutral or initial pose, with its arms outstretched and its feet planted a short distance apart. The initial pose is extremely practical for rigging and skinning a character.

2. Select the MESH_Character object and right-click in a viewport to bring up the quad menu. Choose Freeze Selection in the upper-right quad.

   

   NoteThe Freeze Selection function is also accessible from the Freeze rollout on the Display panel.

   The mesh turns grey and can no longer be selected by the cursor. This effectively gets the mesh out of the way, while maintaining its visibility for reference during bone creation and placement.

   However, since you will be working predominately in a shaded view during the bone-creation lesson, it would also be helpful if you could partially see through the “solid” mesh. You will set the mesh object’s See-Through property to accomplish this.

   Unfortunately, because the mesh is now frozen, it can no longer be selected. There are several methods to access an object’s properties in this case. The most obvious way is to unfreeze the object, set its applicable property, and refreeze it. Another way, however, is to set the object property directly using MAXScript. A third way, and the one you’re going to use, is to set the object property graphically using Schematic View.

3. On the Main toolbar, click Open Schematic View.

   Several items, or nodes, are displayed in the Schematic View window. One of the nodes is labeled MESH_Character; this is the frozen character mesh.

4. Right-click the MESH_Character node, and choose Edit Properties.

   

5. In the Object Properties dialog > General tab > Display Properties group, turn on See-Through, and click OK.

   The character is now frozen and partially transparent. This will allows you to easily see the bones you create during this lesson.

6. Close Schematic View.

Create the left leg bones:

In this lesson, you'll create a total of five bones to define the left leg: The upper and lower leg bones, a foot bone, a toe bone, and the toe tip bone.

1. Choose Animation menu > Bone Tools to open the Bone Tools dialog.
2. On the Bone Tools dialog > Bone Tools group, click Create Bones.
3. Click Min/Max Toggle to display four viewports.
4. In the Left view, click once at the top of the character’s thigh, once at the knee, once at the ankle, once at the midpoint in the foot, and once at the toe. Right-click to cancel out of Bones create mode.

   

   In the Perspective view, you’ll see that the five bones have actually been created directly between the mesh’s legs. This is because all objects are created on the current construction plane. The default construction plane consists of three interpenetrating planes that intersect at the world origin. The default grid in each view represents one of these planes; in the case of the Left view, the default grid is the YZ plane.

5. In the Front view, select the root bone (the thigh bone) and move it left to sit inside the mesh’s left thigh.
6. Moving down the hierarchy, move each bone to sit inside the appropriate part of the mesh.
   TipYou can press Page Up and Page Down to move up and down the hierarchy easily. In some cases, such as when a spinner field is selected, you might have to activate a viewport to enable the shortcuts.
7. Select and rotate the foot bone (the third bone from the top) so that both it and the toe bones sit flat on the ground as seen from the Front viewport.

   

   Now would be a good time to rename each bone for easier identification in future exercises. A good naming convention helps to organize the scene in a way that enables fast recall of scene components. There are no hard rules for object naming; the general rule of thumb is to consider that someone else, let alone yourself, should have easy access to any component of your scene with minimal browsing.

8. Select the root bone and rename it BONE_L_Leg_Upper in the command panel.

   The L in the object name refers to the left leg.

9. Moving down the hierarchy, select and name each bone as follows:
   • BONE_L_Leg_Lower
   • BONE_L_Foot
   • BONE_L_Toe
   • BONE_L_Toe_Tip

Create the right leg bones:

You can take advantage of the time invested making the left leg bones by using the Mirror tool to construct the right leg bones quickly.

1. Select all the left leg bones.
   TipYou can select the entire leg by double-clicking the thigh.
2. On the Main Toolbar, change the Reference Coordinate System to World.
3. Also on the Main toolbar, change the Use Pivot Center flyout to Use Transform Coordinate Center.

   These two toolbar controls are known as transform managers. These settings determine the behavior of certain transform operations that depend on an object’s (or multiple objects’) pivot point. Use Pivot Point is the default center point for single selected objects, whereas Use Selection Center is the default for multiple selected objects.

   Use Transform Coordinate Center places the center point at the origin of the specified reference coordinate system. In the case of the World coordinate system, this places the center squarely between the mesh’s legs.

   You'll now use the Mirror tool to copy the left leg over to the right side.

4. On the Main toolbar, click Mirror Selected Objects.
5. On the Mirror: World Coordinates dialog > Clone Selection group, change Clone Selection type to Copy, and click OK.

   You now have a perfect replica of the left leg bones at the correct position inside the mesh’s right leg.

Rename the right leg bones:

When you mirrored and copied the left leg bones to the right side, each bone name was appended with the number 01. Next, you’ll quickly rename the bones to reflect their switch to the right-hand side using the Rename Objects tool. This tool allows you to intelligently rename any number of selected objects at once.

1. Select all the bones in the right leg.
2. Choose Tools menu > Rename Objects.
3. Make sure Base Name and Numbered are turned off. Turn on Prefix, Remove First, and Remove Last.
4. In the Prefix text field, type BONE_R.
5. Set Remove First Digits to 6, and the Remove Last Digits value to 2.

   

6. Click Rename.

   The name of each bone in the right leg has been changed to indicate that it is now on the right-hand side of the character mesh. In this case, the Rename Objects tool first removed the first six digits and the last two digits of each name (“BONE_L” and “01”).

Adjust the leg bone properties:

Now you'll use Bone Tools to change the appearance of the leg bones. These tools allow you to adjust the properties of any number of bones at one time. In this procedure, you'll use Bone Tools to add a different color gradient to each leg for easy differentiation, and to add fins to the foot and toe bones.

1. Select the entire left leg structure.
2. If the Bone Tools dialog isn't open, choose Animation menu > Bone Tools.
3. In the Bone Coloring group, click the Start Color swatch, and choose a light shade of blue.
4. Click the End Color swatch, and choose a dark shade of blue.
5. Click Apply Gradient.

   The left leg bones’ colors now range from light blue at the upper leg to dark blue at the toe tip.

6. Repeat the process on the right leg, using two different shades of green instead.

   

   The different bone colors make it relatively easy to differentiate between the start and end joints, as well as between the left and right legs, even when viewed from a distance.

   Now you'll add fins to the foot and toe bones.

7. Select the Foot bone in each leg.
8. In the Bone Tools dialog, expand the Fin Adjustment Tools rollout. Turn on the Side Fins and Back Fin settings, and set the Size spinner for each fin type to 7.0.
9. Select the Toe bone in each leg and enable the Side, Front, and Back Fins, setting their Size spinners to 7.0, 3.0, and 3.0, respectively.

   

   The foot and toe bones now fit more snugly within the boundaries of the character mesh. This will be pertinent when you skin the character in later lessons.

10. Save your work as my_char_bone_legs.max.

    You can also open tut_char_bone_file02.max to examine the result of this lesson.