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Creating Shadows and Changing the Chain Element Display

You can change the display of chain elements (bones, roots, and effectors) and nulls to be a different shape or size, as well as create shadow icons for each individual element. There is a wide variety of shapes from which to choose to display the elements, including having nothing displayed at all. This lets you set up chains that look very different from the default display.

You can also create a shadow for each chain element and null. A shadow is a visual reference that simplifies visualizing and selecting elements that are too small or too difficult to select. Because the shadows are 3D representations of the elements themselves, you may not need to create and constrain special control objects or icons for the purpose of rigging (see Character Rigging for more information).

As well, you can offset and resize the shadows without affecting the skeleton’s structure or the envelope’s shape—they’re only display enhancements.

There are many ways in which you can change the chain elements’ display to solve a number of issues:

• Change the shape of all root or effectors to distinguish them from each other. This is because roots and effectors are both nulls by default and are often in the same location.

• Make the bone size smaller to be proportional for small-scaled characters, or make a chain element, such as an effector, larger to make it easy to select.

• If you’re working with an enveloped skeleton, you can create shadows of chain elements and make them stick out of the envelope so that they’re easy to select.

• Create shadows with different shapes according to their purpose, such as using flattened cylinders for bones that are for FK rigging, using boxes for bones that are for IK rigging, using rings for bones that are for deforming, and so on. If each bone has a consistent shadow, anybody else working on the character immediately knows what to select for which purpose.

• Color-code the shadows according to their different purposes, such as coloring all shadows yellow for elements that you translate, or blue for all elements that you rotate, or green shadows for elements on the left side of the body and red shadows for elements on the right.

• Color-code the chain element’s shadow to match its corresponding color on the envelope for weighting.

Changing the Shape and Size of Chain Elements and Nulls

To change the shape and size of the chain elements and nulls

1. Select a bone, root, effector, or null and press Enter to open its property editor (Chain Bone, Chain Root, Chain Effector, or Null property editor).

You can also select multiple bones, effectors, roots, or nulls to change the display properties of many chain elements in the same way at once.

2. Select a shape from the Bone Display or Primary Display > Icon list to change the shape of the chain element or null (effectors, roots, and nulls have the same options)—see Shapes for Effectors, Roots, and Nulls and Their Shadows and Shapes for Bones and Their Shadows for the different display options.

3. Set a value for the Size slider to change the scale of the element’s icon.

For effectors, roots, and nulls, this scales the display icon on all axes at the same time, like uniform scaling. However, if you’re resizing a bone, this changes the size of the display icon along the bone’s Y and Z axes, but not the X axis (length).

When you change the Size value for the icon, its accompanying shadow also scales proportionally with it.

Creating Shadows for Chain Elements and Nulls

To create shadows for chain elements and nulls

1. Select a bone, root, effector, or null and press Enter to open its property editor (Chain Bone, Chain Root, Chain Effector, or Null property editor).

You can also select multiple bones, effectors, roots, or nulls to set shadows for many elements in the same way at once.

2. Set a shape from the Shadow Display > Icon list to create a shadow of that shape — see Shapes for Effectors, Roots, and Nulls and Their Shadows and Shapes for Bones and Their Shadows for the different display options.

When you select an Icon shape other than None, options are displayed on the property page to let you change the shadow’s color, position (offset), size, and locking state:

Shapes for Bones and Their Shadows

Select from any of these shapes for bones and their shadows from the Icon list in their property editor.

Table Anchor	Standard - Default style.	Table Anchor	SI|3D Style - Same as Standard except top wedge extends beyond bone’s root for a fixed proportion.
Table Anchor	Pyramid - Same as Standard except no top wedge.	Table Anchor	Wedge - Arched at top, with thickness tapering down to joint. Wedge II is the same except the top wedge extends beyond the bone’s root.
Table Anchor	Box - Full box from root to joint.	Table Anchor	Line - Straight line from root to joint.
Table Anchor	Cylinder - 10-sectioned cylinder from root to joint.	Table Anchor	Cone - 10-sectioned cone tapering from root down to joint.
Table Anchor	Square - Squares drawn at the root. They’re offset on X in this image. Squares are useful for vertebrae on a spine.	Table Anchor	Circle - Circles drawn at the root. They’re offset on X in this image. Circles are useful for vertebrae on a spine.
Table Anchor	Rings - Elongated spheres from the root to joint.	Table Anchor

Shapes for Effectors, Roots, and Nulls and Their Shadows

Select from any of these shapes for effectors, roots, and nulls and their shadows from the Icon list in their property editor.

Table Anchor	Null - Default style.	Table Anchor	Rings - Three concentric rings, each aligned with an axis (X,Y,Z) representing the centre of the root/effector.
Table Anchor	Arrow Rings - Same as Rings except with an arrow in each ring to mark the direction of the axis.	Table Anchor	Box - centered at the root/effector.
Table Anchor	Circle - centered at the root/effector.	Table Anchor	Square - centered at root/effector.
Table Anchor	Diamond - centered at root/effector.	Table Anchor	Pyramid - bottom is centered at root/effector.
Table Anchor	Pointed Box - bottom is centered at root/effector.	Table Anchor	Arrow - centered at root/effector.

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