Bones Overview

Summary

Bones are fundamental rigging tools used to create a skeleton for vector graphics. This allows for natural and intuitive animation of connected parts like limbs or branches. The lesson covers bone creation, hierarchical chains, and the difference between root and child bones.

Step by Step

1. 00:29
   Activating the Bone Tool

   Use the Bone menu or the shortcut key B to activate the tool.
2. 00:42
   Creating a Bone Chain

   Click once to set the start point and a second time to define the bone. Each subsequent click adds a new bone as a child of the previous one.
3. 01:10
   Confirming the Chain

   Press Escape or V to finish placing bones and confirm the hierarchy.
4. 01:24
   Root vs. Child Bones

   Note that root bones have a Position property in the Inspector, while child bones only have rotation and length relative to their parent.
5. 01:36
   Extending Chains

   To add more bones to an existing chain, select a joint, reactivate the Bone tool (B), and continue clicking.
6. 01:52
   Using Joints

   Manipulate the circular joints to adjust the rotation and length of individual bones. Note that joints do not appear as separate objects in the hierarchy.
7. 02:17
   Manual Hierarchy

   Create parent-child relationships between separate bone chains by dragging and dropping one onto another in the hierarchy panel.

Notes About Current Rive

• Natural Deformation: Bones are designed to drive the movement of multiple connected parts (like an arm or a tree branch) simultaneously.
• Hierarchical Logic: Each bone in a chain automatically becomes a child of the one before it, ensuring that moving a parent bone affects the entire branch below it.
• Joints vs. Bones: Joints are visual handles for control; the actual data being manipulated is the bone's rotation and length properties.