COMPLEX RIGS

[w3rew0lfgirl_99]

Is there a way to rig multiple little bones to bigger section bone areas to allow for both complexed and simple movements? I have a dragon with a long neck and tail and a complexed scale system. I have neck to tail rigged like a detailed spine with a lot of little bones. But is there a way to get the little spine bones to move in sections like chest/belly/butt and upper neck/ middle neck/ lower neck by rigging them to bigger bones? Maybe create a bone with two parents?
http://www.mediafire.com/file/jnd3xcovr ... g_42.anime

[synthsin75]

Here's an idea: http://www.filedropper.com/saphiradrawing42edited

Controlling the angle of a chain of bones by one bone is additive down the chain, as each is also rotated by its parent bone. So you can make as many or as few constrained controlling bones as you need for the movement you want to animate.

[w3rew0lfgirl_99]

Cool! What kind of method is this? I need to look it up so I can learn to do it.

[w3rew0lfgirl_99]

I finally understand how this was done.
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! to Synthsin75 for showing me this method! : D
For anyone in the future who looks at this post you must select each bone in your bone chain, go to bone constraints and go to angle control bone and select the main bone you want them to follow. : )

[Greenlaw]

Depending on your design, the Sketch Bone tool can also be an excellent way to animate long chains of bones inside a rig. I use it to animate long tails, locks of hair, noodle limbs, clothing, rope, sea creatures, etc. It's also good for animating long thin bone chains in 'non-character' items like tall sea plants, 'wind lines' fx, streams of fire or water, etc.

One useful trick is to use with Sketch Bones is the Design Mode toggle (Ctrl-Shift-D) to jump to frame 0 to make the bone chain selection and back again for animation. This is often easier than trying to make the selection on a frame where the character is posed. (Actually, Synthsin75 gave me that tip.)

Note: It's not actually necessary to select the bones before using Sketch Bones. You can draw the pose for the chain on part of the chain if you prefer, and the tool will keyframe only the bones your cursor traces though. But, IMO, it's easier to get smoother chain motions if you keyframe rotation for all the bones in the chain, and Design Mode can make it easier to select all the bones in the chain to freeze any bones you might have missed. I hope that makes sense--if not, it probably will once you've done it a few times.

[hayasidist]

I think w3rew0lfgirl_99 is on ASP 11.0 -- didn't sketch bones come in 12??

[synthsin75]

ASP 11.2 had sketch bones, so that's probably the most expressive way to animate the tail.

Great tip, Dennis. I didn't even think of sketch bones.