Editing Bones

There are two methods for adding bones, one is to add a new bone chain from nothing, the other is to add bones from any existing bone.

Adding Bone Chain from Scratch

1. Make sure that the Bone Editor is opened.
   
2. Press down the Add Bone button.
   
3. Click on the image which you wish to place the first bone.
   
   
4. Move away the mouse and you will see a triangle pointing to your cursor. It indicates the location for the next bone point.
   
5. Click on the image again and a new child bone will be added.
   
6. Repeat Step 3 to 5 in order to construct a custom bone chain.
   
7. Right-click on the working area, or press the ESC key to stop adding new bones.
   
   

Adding Child Bone from Existing Bone

1. Make sure that there is an existing bone structure.
   
2. Open the Bone Editor and press down the Add Bone button.
3. Move cursor to the bone point where you want to start a branch bone chain.
   
4. Click on it.
   
5. Move away the mouse and you will see a triangle pointing to your cursor. It indicates the location for the next bone point.
   
6. Click on the image again and a new child bone will be added.
   
7. Right-click on the working area, or press the ESC key to stop adding new bones.
8. Repeat Step 3 to 7 in order to construct new branch bone chains.
   

In order to connect isolated bone chains, you can use the Connect feature. In addition, you can use this feature to link a child bone to any other parent bone.

1. Make sure you have created isolated bone chains first.
   
2. Make sure the Bone Editor is opened.
3. Select the root bone of one isolated bone chain.
   
4. Click the Connect button on the Bone Editor.
5. Hover on to one bone on the other bone chain.
   
6. Click on the highlighted bone. The bone chain will then turn to be the child bone chain of it.
   
   Note:

   • The first selected bone will become a child, and the target bone being connected to it will become the parent one.
   • Please note that the bone at the bottom side of the triangle is the Parent bone while the one at the tip point of the triangle is the Child.
     
   • The triangle between two bones is actually Not a Bone. It is only an indication for showing the direction of the bone string and the connection between bones.
7. Repeat the same steps until all isolated bone chains are connected to the desired bone.
   
8. Optionally, use the Preview feature to observe the effects working on the bones with IK and FK methods.
   
   Note:

   For better observation, the sizes of the bones in the illustration are decreased.

When you want to generate more bone strings with the same structure under a certain parent bone, you can use the Duplicate feature to save a lot of time for building.

1. Build a bone structure to an image.
   
   Note:

   For better observation, the color of the bones in the illustration is changed.

2. Select the desired bone as the root for duplicating itself and its child bones.
   
3. Click the Duplicate button.
   
4. Move the newly generated bone root of the chain to the desired location.
   
5. Optionally transform the sub-root bone or child bones if necessary.
   
6. Repeat the same steps to build enough bone strings for the object in the image.
   
7. Transform the bones in order that they are all located within the image.
   

For a completely symmetric object in an image, you can use the Mirror feature to save time when building bone chains so that it is almost the same structure but flipped.

1. Make sure that the bone structure is built for the one side of the object in the image.
   
2. Make sure that the Bone Editor panel is opened.
3. Select the sub-root bone for mirroring.
   
4. Click the Mirror button.
5. In the Mirror Option panel, choose one of the radio button in accordance with the symmetrical status of the object in the image (in this case, Horizontal).
   
6. Click the OK button to mirror the selected bone and its child bones.
   
   Note:

   Slightly transform the newly created bones if necessary.

7. Repeat the same steps until the bones that should be mirrored are done.
   

Too few bones can cause low-quality distorting or bending of the image. You can insert more bones between existing bones in order to smooth the image distortion.

1. In the Composer mode, make sure that the Bone Editor is opened.
2. Select the bone under which you want to insert new child bone.
   
3. Click the Insert button on the Bone Editor. A child bone will thus be insert under the selected bone node.
   
4. Adjust the position of the new bone to fit the object in the image.
   
5. Repeat the same steps to add more bones.
   
6. Optionally press down the Preview button to observe the enhanced distortion or bending result with the IK or FK method caused by the inserted bones.
   

Occasionally, after the sprite image is replaced, you can find that there is no need to have many bones. You can then use the Reduce feature to remove middle bones within a bone chain.

The original sprite image	The sprite image is replaced and there is no need to have the same number of bones

1. In the Composer mode, make sure that the Bone Editor is opened.
2. Select the bone that is redundant.
   
3. Click the Reduce button and the bone will be deleted without affecting the child bones.
   
4. Repeat the same steps until the bone is optimized.
   
5. Adjust the position of the bone to fit into the new image.
   

• If you wish to remove one bone (or pin) and all its child bones, then select the bone (or pin) and click the Remove button.
  

  Select a bone from the bone structure for removing the bone and its child bones	The bone and its offspring are removed after the Remove button is clicked.

  Note:

  The shortcut key for the Remove feature: Delete key.

• However, by clicking the Reset button, you can remove the entire bone structure and pins.
  

  The original sprite image	The bones and pins are completely removed