Adding bone cartilage

[Hoptoad]

I'd like to see cartilage added to root bones and pin bones.

Cartilage? What's that? Did you just make that up ten minutes ago?

Yes.

"Cartilage" is an option added to bones, but doesn't have an effect on points or modify the influence of bones. Instead, cartilage adds a rectangle to a root bone and an octagon to a pin bone, making it easier to notice those bones and grab those bones.

A pin bone can be hard to notice and grab if there are a lot of bones in a rig. If one of your pin bones is hard to see, you could simply add cartilage to that bone. That would add a medium-size octagon around the pin bone that would not only bring attention to that bone, you could also move the pin bone if any area of the octagon was clicked-on with the manipulate bones tool or the transform bone tool.

The cartilage for the root bone would be a rectangle, and you would have the option of entering and displaying the name of the character in the rectangle (like a label). Furthermore, if you click on the rectangle, it would function as "select layer" for the bone layer of that character. This would make it easy to move between multiple characters in a scene. Also, like the cartilage for pin bones, you could also move the root bone if any area of the rectangle was clicked-on

[erikk]

I’d be down if they promise to never ever ever call it that. Ugh, what a terrible term for a feature. Surely there’s better.

[Hoptoad]

I totally agree. The developers would need to come up with a better name.

How about ligament? It also attaches to bone.

[Greenlaw]

That's an interesting idea...sort of visually extending where a bone can be selected and operated from right?

In the meantime, you can use Bone Constraints to do something similar.

For example, if you look at the boss baby dinosaur rig demo on my reel, you'll see a control outside of the skeleton for the necktie off. This control is not a Smart Bone Dial but rather it's a 'remote control' for the necktie bones, and I'm using Angle constraint to control it. I did this because otherwise it would get too cluttered to animate the neck tie inside the skeleton, especially when the dinosaur is turning or doing some busy work with his tiny arms.

Another common use of a constraint is Position to control Eye movement outside of the main skeleton. This makes it easier to select and move the eye bones since you're not dealing with 'face bones clutter', and it's also an easy way to solve the offset problem after a character turns its head and the eye position changes. I use this method all the time now, and you can see examples of this setup in some of the demo rigs that come with Moho. (Victor's gorilla rig comes to mind...that's where I saw it first.)

[hayasidist]

take a look at: https://www.lostmarble.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=34594

Sam's tool sorta addresses the need.

[Hoptoad]

That's an interesting idea...sort of visually extending where a bone can be selected and operated from right?

Yes, exactly. I'd like it to be easier to notice the root bones, identify what they are, and move them. Same for certain pin bones.

I don't have a system for placing root bones, which may be my problem. Sometimes they extend from a character's pelvis. Sometimes they are located below a character's feet. Sometimes they are above their head.

Sometimes I'm guessing that the root bone is a root bone when I click on it. I usually make them pretty big, though, so that helps.

In the meantime, you can use Bone Constraints to do something similar. . .

. . .(Victor's gorilla rig comes to mind...that's where I saw it first.)

Whoa! That is amazing. Thanks for the tip. I'm studying the gorilla and I think I've got it figured out.

1) Select a tiny eye bone.
2) Make a new easier-to-grab bone elsewhere.
3) Use bone constraint to make the new bone have control of the eye bone.
4) Shy the tiny eye bone.
5) Make a vector layer and name it "label" or whatever. Create some helpful art on the layer to draw attention to the controller bone and bind it to the controller bone.

[Hoptoad]

take a look at: https://www.lostmarble.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=34594

Sam's tool sorta addresses the need.

Thanks, I just added the script and tested it. I really like the virtual bone shaped like an exclamation mark.

The user can virtually change the appearance of selected bones to whatever they want, which is powerful. Right now I'm working on a character with 6 legs, so I might change the appearance of the foot bones.

Virtual bones are imaginary, though. When it comes to manipulating bones, Moho ignores my big virtual bone and selects the true bone closest to where I click. Still, it's pretty fun.

[hayasidist]

Virtual bones are imaginary, though. When it comes to manipulating bones, Moho ignores my big virtual bone and selects the true bone closest to where I click. Still, it's pretty fun.

you might consider hiding (some of) the real bones so they can't get accidentally selected? (with the bone select tool active, select one or more bones and check the "shy bone" box -- to see them Bone > hide/show shy bones)

[Hoptoad]

you might consider hiding (some of) the real bones so they can't get accidentally selected? (with the bone select tool active, select one or more bones and check the "shy bone" box -- to see them Bone > hide/show shy bones)

Good idea.

In some of my bone rigs, it's hard to tell the head bone from the neck bone and other facial bones. With the Virtual Bones script, I made a virtual bone (VB) for the head that's a thin white triangle with a red stroke. It looks nothing like any other bones, but overlaps the head bone, so the VB works. And then I hid the real head bone by the shy bone option, so I only see the VB. Awesome.

[Greenlaw]

Whoa! That is amazing. Thanks for the tip. I'm studying the gorilla and I think I've got it figured out.

Yeah, and you can use more than one type of constraint on the bone. For example, use a remote controller bone to move the eye ,and rotate that bone to change the angle of the eye's specular highlight. Or you can add a Smart Bone Action to the remote controller bone so that rotating it in one direction will dilate the pupil and rotating it the other way can scale the whole eye for a surprised look. Want to extend this farther? Use a bone's position and rotation to control hidden Smart Bones...that's basically how all those joystick controls work.

You can actually do a lot of things with very few visible control bones...Moho is very flexible that way. But it's easy to get carried away with it too, so remember to ask yourself "Does this fancy setup really help me animate faster?"

[Hoptoad]

Want to extend this farther? Use a bone's position and rotation to control hidden Smart Bones...that's basically how all those joystick controls work.

My daughter keeps expressing interest in learning joystick controls. My response is always a version of "Ask me easier questions!"

[Greenlaw]

I always feel like joystick rigs are neat for a demo but not very practical in actual animation production. They work well within a certain range of movement but then that's all you get.

But I'm probably just too lazy to make one.