All language subtitles for 07_05_armature_and_bones_basics

- [Zach] In this video, let's have a look

at the basics of the
armature object and the bones

in order to better understand
the rigging process later on.

So here I opened the empty preset file

and let's move the asset proser down here,

we don't need it right now.

And first of all, let's hit Shift + A

and add an armature object.

So we are currently in object mode

and the armature object is a
container for all the bones.

Meaning if I press T

we have all the default
transform tools over here,

we can move it around, I
can press G, R, S and so on.

And although currently

we are just seeing one
of these bones here,

later on when I create more bones,

all of these bones will be
inside of these armature objects.

So in object mode, I can't
select the individual bones.

So besides object mode, we
also have two other modes.

We have the edit mode.

In edit mode, we are creating
the bones and position them

so that they are fit into
our character, for example.

So we are defining the default
rest pose of our skeleton.

However, if we later on wanna animate

and pose our characters,
machines and so on,

we have to switch to Pose Mode.

So, but more about this a bit later,

first of all, let's switch to edit mode.

In edit mode, we can now select
our bones, move them around,

duplicate them, extrude them and so on.

However, before we do this,

we have to understand
how a bone is built up.

A bone is built up out of three elements.

We have the body, which is
basically the entire bone.

When I click on this long
thing here at the center,

then if I press R, S or G,

I can transform the bone as we know it,

or we can also use the
transform tools over here.

However, I can also click
on this joint up here,

which is called tail and we
also have it joint down here,

which is called head.

However, since bones are many
times positioned like this,

it's weird to call the lower one head

and the upper one tail.

I mean, if we are flipping this around,

then we can kind of imagine this

to be like a little character
with the head up here

and the tail down here.

However, I find it easier
to call this one here root

and this one here tip.

And if I press N to open up the sidebar,

you can see that we have
the position of the head

and the position of the tail over here,

which we can, of course
also change here if we like,

and the same down here.

Let's undo this and as you've seen now,

if I click on one of the two joints here,

I can also press G to move it around,

and this will change the orientation

and the lengths of the bone.

And I can do the same thing over here.

So this is very important to understand

in order to like position our bones

exactly in the body later on

so it fits exactly the length
of the arm for example.

Here in the sidebar, we also
have some other options,

for example, the roll which changes

the rotation of the bone,
which is also important.

However, we will learn
more about this later,

and we can also change the
length of the bone over here.

The radius and the envelope options

we can totally ignore right now.

This is nothing we will
use in this course.

So how can we add more bones?

First of all, if I Shift
+ right click somewhere

to place a 3d cursor here,
I can always press Shift + A

to add a new bone to the
position of the 3D cursor.

And these bones will not
be connected in any way.

Let's get rid of these.

Then over here, you can
see, we have some tools,

however, I rather like
to use the shortcuts,

which we already know.

So I can, for example,
select the tip here,

press E, to exclude this.

Let's press Z to lock
this along the Z axis.

And as you can see here,

I can also extrude multiple
bones out of the same joint

and then all of these will be connected.

However, bones don't always
have to be directly connected,

I can also select one of these bones

and press Shift + D to duplicate them

and then you can see
this relationship line,

which points to this bone over here.

That means, although
these are not connected

to each other directly,
they are still parented.

That means this one is
now the child object

and this is the parent.

That means to better understand this

if I move over to pose mode
and now move the parent,

you can see all of these connected bones

will move along with it.

So we have a bone chain over here,

which is of course important
if we create the legs

or the arms of a character,

then these bones should be connected.

However, this bone up here, I
can still move independently

if I move the bone alone.

However, on the relationship line,

you can see it's parented to
the parent bone down here.

So it will still move along with it.

So that means in general,

bones don't always need to be connected.

Let's go back to edit mode

and there's another way to add more bones.

You can select one bone here, right-click

and click on subdivide.

Then down here, we can
increase the subdivisions.

And if I right click, we
can also do other things

like switch the direction
to flip the bones

so we have some more options
here in the context menu.

So we now know that we can
connect and parent bones,

but how can we do this manually?

First of all, let's get
rid of all these bones,

select them and press X,
and then delete bones.

So let's Shift + right-click
place a 3D cursor here

and add a new bone.

Now, if I wanna connect this
bone directly to this bone,

let's select this bone first,

and then the one I want to connect this to

then either do a right-click,

go to parent and click on Make,
and then click on connected.

Now you can see these bones

are directly connected to each
other, or let's undo this.

We can also press Ctrl + P to do this

and then instead of connect,

we can also click on keep offset.

Now again, we have this relationship line.

That means this one here

is now the child object
of this parent bone.

Later on, we will learn when
to use the keep offset option

and when to use the connect option.

By the way, if you wanna clear

a parent select the child bone here,

press Alt + P and click on
Clear Parent or Disconnect Bone,

or you can also find this in
the right click context menu

under clear, clear parent.

Now they are not connected
to each other anymore.

Then we have some options over
here in the properties panel

and here three tabs are important.

In edit mode, we only have two tabs.

We have the armature tab

where we can define general settings

for the entire armature object.

For example, here under viewport display,

we can enable axis so we
can see the local axis

on each individual bone,
which is very important

and we will learn more
about this later on,

and we can also change
the display of the bone.

That means how the bone will look,

but this won't change anything

in terms on how the bone will
affect the mesh later on.

So let's change this back to Octahedral

and the second important tab
is the bone tab over here

where we can change settings

for each individual selected bone.

And if I switch over to pose mode

where we can animate and pose our bones,

we also have a third important tab

which are the bone constraints.

That means we can constraint

or limit our bones in a certain way,

or make them interact with each other.

Take care, we also have the
general object constraint tab.

This will affect the entire object,

meaning the object here in object mode.

So now to better understand all of this,

let's do a very quick and easy exercise.

Let's get rid of everything here.

Shift + C to recenter the 3D cursor.

Let's with Shift + A add a new armature,

and let's add a cube
bottom here, Alt + G ,

scale this down a bit,

so it's roughly the size of the bone here.

Scale this along the Z axis
maybe four times, Enter,

then let's apply the scale

and in edit mode with Ctrl +
R let's add three loop cuts.

So I scroll the most wheel

and then double left
click to confirm the cuts.

Let's move this down here.
And now we have one problem,

we can't see the armature object.

Let's switch back to object
mode, select the Armature,

go to the amateur settings,
which I just talked about

and then we can enable in front.

So the bones will always show up in front,

although they are inside the object.

Now, as the bone selected,
let's go to edit mode.

Now we wanna make this
cube like shape deformable.

So let's move this up here
with the tip selected,

then select the body, right-click
and click on Subdivide.

And let's add three cuts, so
we have four bones in the end.

All of these bones are now
automatically connected,

as you can see,

and now we somehow need
to tell these bones

that the mesh around it should
move along with these bones.

And later on, when rigging our characters,

we will use a different approach.

However, here to make it quick and easy,

you can select the mesh then
we Shift the armature object

and then use the parent option,

meaning press Ctrl + P or
right-click go to Parent,

and then you also have
all these options here.

And here, I wanna do
with the armature deform

with automatic weights.

That means for each bone,

a vertex group was applied
to this object here.

If I quickly switch over to weight paint,

we can see what's going on here.

And in the object data tab,
we have the vertex groups

and now you can see
each bone is listed here

was a different vertex group

and on these colors here,

we can see how much each of the
bones is deforming the mesh.

So now these two objects
are connected to each other.

That means in object mode,

the cube was parented
to the armature object.

Meaning if I move the
general armature object,

the mesh is moving around with it.

However, I can still move
the mesh independently.

However, if I now switch
over to pose mode,

I can pose this and the mesh will deform

along with the bones.

But if I switched to edit
mode, as mentioned before,

here we are not posing
our characters and so on,

here we can change the
shape of our resting pose,

that general shape of our skeleton.

So if I do something like this hare

and now switch over to pose mode,

this will also affect how
the skeleton in pose mode

will look like.

However, it will still work.

So let's undo this and now
let's switch over to pose mode.

let's opened up the timeline down here

and let's do a quick animation.

So let's select all of these bones

with a pointer down here at frame zero.

Let's press I and add a
key frame for rotation

in this case, let's go
a few frames further,

and then let's simply rotate all of these.

And you can see how this bone chain

is interacting with each other.

If I select this bone,

you can see how these two are
moving along with this bone

and so on and so forth.

Here, we can move the entire chain

and in the front here I
can only move one bone.

So make something like this,

hit I insert key frame for rotation,

and now we can see we
have animated these bones.

And if I now switch back
to object mode here,

we can see the animation.

However, since I can't
select the individual bones,

I can't animate this as like in pose mode.

However, I could animate that
the entire armature object

is moving around.

Yeah, and these are the very basics

of how to edit and add bones,

how to work with the armature object

and where to find the
most important settings.

And although this might
be a bit boring topic,

this knowledge is a very
important foundation

in order to make the full
rigging process of a character,

easier to understand.