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14.2 The Layout Program, Bones - Part 2
 
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LAYOUT, ENSURING SCENE NUMBER = OBJECT NUMBER

If you wish to do a 'File->Save Scene As...', and wish to increase the number of the scene. And, if at the same time you wish to bump the object number so the two values stay in sync...

The 'Scene' number should always equal the 'Object' number. Therefore, if you're saving out the scene as arm_05.lws, then the associated object name should also be arm_05.lwo

However, it's very common that you did many versions of an object far before you do a scene in Layout. However, you saved the scene as a different number than the object is named. Lets say that you saved your scene as arm.lws, but the embedded object is currently called 'arm_04.lwo'


LAYOUT, BUMPING SCENE NUMBER

First, load arm_04.lws.

Then, do a 'File->Save Scene As...' and call it 'arm_05.lws'

Click the button in the far upper-right corner of Layout's window or press 'F12'. This will switch you to the Modeler program, and will automatically load all objects from your scene into Modeler.


LAYOUT, BUMPING OBJECT NUMBER(S) & SYNC

Do a 'File->Save Object As...' from Modeler, and save the object as 'arm_05.lwo'

Remember that whenever you're working with a computer, a computer can't read your mind. So, if I know that I mean to transfer the arm object to the Modeler program, I'll have to tell the Layout program by selecting that particular object. If I didn't choose the object first, but possibly had a light or camera currently selected, then Layout couldn't know that I wanted to transfer an object and thus wouldn't transfer an object. In that case Modeler would appear, but no object would appear in the views.

Thus, make sure you select the arm object before choosing 'Synchronize Layout'.

Once you've selected the arm object, select from the drop-down menu at the far top right of Modeler, 'Synchronize Layout'"



Click the title bar of the Layout program and you'll find that the object name in the 'Selected Item' drop-down menu has changed from 'arm_04.lwo' to 'arm_05.lwo', and if you did a 'File->Save Scene As...' you can see that the scene's current name is now a matching 'arm_05.lws'


LAYOUT, BANK ROTATION HANDLES

In the last tutorial, I used skelegons in the way I used to use skelegons... I just let Layout do whatever it wanted to do with the skelegons, not worrying about what plane the rotation angles were in afterward.

Luckily, the way it turned out, the pitch of the forearm happened to be proper. This is how I used to convert skelegons to bones, and is the way I suspect most people use skelegons.

Then, when the rotation gizmos don't lie in the directions which makes sense, I'd try rotating and manipulating the bones to twist them into proper angles. If you can't control the movement of bones, of course, this ruins the whole idea of using skelegons.

I believe the original concept of skelegons had been... you can save skelegons, you can load skelegons, and you can synchronize skelegons. Change skelegons in Modeler, synchronize them, and BAM the changes are reflected in the Layout program.

I've talked a lot of 'Bank Rotation Handles', but so far I haven't used the methods I've outlined. That's what this section is for. Lets look at skelegons from Layout's aspect, now.


LAYOUT, LETS EXPERIMENT

Whenever you wish to understand something in either Layout or Modeler and it isn't well explained in the manual, experiment in a methodical manner.

In case you have bones in the current Layout scene, delete all bones.


LAYOUT, DELETE ALL BONES

To delete all bones from your scene, click the drop-down menu and select...




MODELER, MODIFY BANK ROTATION HANDLES

Again click the button in the far upper-right corner of Layout's window or press 'F12'. This will switch you to the Modeler program, and syncronize the current object.

In Modeler, press CTRL-h to enter 'Select Polygons' mode and select the 'ArmShoulder' skelegon.




Select from the 'Other' section of the 'Detail' tab.

And, if you'll remember, because I created the skelegons by first clicking in the 'Back' viewport, the 'Bank Rotation Handles' all point toward the front of the 3D World (sticking out of the back of the arm, the arm being turned in our direction, or backwards relative to the front of the 3D World).




So far, you've seen no relationship between 'Bank Rotation Handles', and bones when they are brought into Layout with a 'Convert Skelegons to Bones'.

We have just let Layout convert the bones using Layout's 'Derive Angle for Next Rotation Gizmo Relative to the Rotation Angle of the Parent' rule.

Now, lets start deciding the angles, ourselves.


MODELER, UNRULY HANDLES

You'll find that 'Bank Rotation Handles' can be very unruly when you don't understand them.

If a skelegon is perpendicular to one of the three 'Back', 'Right' or 'Top' viewports, then it is always easiest to rotate a 'Bank Rotation Handle' in the viewport which looks at the end of the skelegon.

The end of a skelegon always looks like this...




A skelegon always banks by rotating around its center line.

Therefore, a 'Bank Rotation Handle' can only be perpendicular to a skelegon, and rotates best when the skelegon is exactly end-on to you (as in this image).




To rotate a 'Bank Rotation Handle', you grab onto the round part of the lollipop with the left mouse button, hold the button down and move your mouse.

However, if the skelegon isn't end-on to you, the rotation handle with leap around.

IMPORTANT - Thus, the secret to smoothly rotating a bank rotation handle if the skelegon is not end-on to you in one of the three 'Back', 'Right' or 'Top' viewports is to rotate the 3D World in the 'Perspective' viewport until the skelegon is end-on.


MODELER, RED HEADING GIZMO & SKELEGONS

Lets inspect a skelegon for a moment.

What are some hard-and-fast rules you can say about a skelegon, as to how it is later represented as a bone in the Layout program?

I've talked about Heading, Pitch, and Bank before; but, lets now talk about how those relate to a skelegon and the 'Bank Rotation Handle'.

Lets look at the red 'Heading' circle first.

Heading, relative to a skelegon, will always be in a circle around the shortest pyramid end (the end you draw first, when you're dragging out a skelegon).




And pitch, represented in this illustration as the green arrow, would be perpendicular to the red heading gizmo.



But, you'll also notice a very important thing in the last illustration.

IMPORTANT - The orange arrow is pointing to the 'Bank Rotation Handle'... thus, this illustration shows the relationship between pitch/heading, and the angle of the 'Bank Rotation Handle' relative to how bones come into the Layout program.


If the bank rotation handle is pointing towards the sky, and the skelegon were laying flat on the ground like this, then pitch would be the green gizmo and heading the red.

IMPORTANT - The 'Bank Rotation Handle' points at the highest point of the pitch curve (indicated by the white dotted line in the next illustration).

And, bank would be a rotation around the centerline of the skelegon.



So, from this, you can see that by rotating the 'Bank Rotation Handle', you can affect the orientation of the Pitch and because the pitch is perpendicular to the heading circle, the angle of the heading circle.

So, THIS is the real power of the 'Bank Rotation Handle', not that it affects the bank. An object's bank is generally unimportant.

Bank would be when you rotate your wrist or twist your body at its waist.

However, pitch is very important. Pitch is like the movement of the elbow when it bends, or the movement of the body when you bend over to touch your toes, or the movement of your head when you shake it 'Yes'.


MODELER, MODIFYING BANK ROTATION HANDLES

Now you should be able to rotate the bank rotation handles.

Since you can't do anything about heading, as the heading has to be perpendicular to the length of a bone or skelegon, then pitch is the important thing in your control.

You must think each joint as you go. The shoulder's heading should be parallel to the ground. Since the shoulder is merely there to anchor the 'ArmBicep' bone, the pitch really doesn't matter. However, if we were to move the shoulder, the thing that would make the most sense would be if the heading circle were parallel to the ground.

This would mean that the 'Bank Rotation Handle' of the 'ArmShoulder' bone should point toward the sky.



With the next bone, the 'ArmBicep' bone's pitch should be as if you were lifting your arm straight up or down at your side, lifting it from a position stuck to your side, swinging it outward until it was pointing 90 degrees away from the body.

If you look at the illustration, this means that I would have to point the 'ArmBicep' 'Bank Rotation Handle' away from the body.

The best 'end-on' view would be the 'Top' viewport.



I move the handle, watching the image in the 'Back' viewport to ensure that I'm moving the correct handle.



And, finally, you know how an elbow bends. Therefore, the pitch would have to rise towards the 'front' of the arm. Thus, the 'Bank Rotation Handle' needs to point forward, relative to the arm (so the 'Bank Rotation Handle' points towards me in the 'Back' viewport).

That skelegon's end-on view would be in the 'Top' viewport. In the 'Top' viewport, if I point the 'Bank Rotation Handle' downward, that will point toward me in the 'Back' viewport (you have to start exercising your mental rotational muscles).



And, the viewport that I can see it best in would be the 'Right' viewport.



I rotate the arm in the 'Perspective' view using the ALT key and the mouse while in 'Wireframe' view type. When I rotate it so the front is towards me, the 'Bank Rotation Handles' look like this...



I press 's' to save the object.

I select from the drop-down menu at the far top right of Modeler, 'Synchronize Layout'"



From the 'Items' tab, I do a 'Clear->Clear All Bones' to remove the old bones.

It double-checks...



Click 'Yes'.

I make sure that the 'Arm05' object is the currently selected item, then from the 'Items' tab I do an 'Add->Bones->Skelegons to Bones'



Click 'OK'.

From the 'Items' tab, select or press 'y'.

Select or press SHIFT-b.

From the 'Bones' drop-down menu, select the 'ArmShoulder' bone.



In this case, the gizmo is already in the correct orientation, but it can't hurt to tell it to use the 'Bank Rotation Handle' setting.

To tell layout to use the 'Bank Rotation Handle' setting for that bone, from the drop-down menu select 'Record Pivot Rotation'.



In this particular case, there's no visible difference.

Next, I select the 'ArmBicep' bone.



You'll note that the blue 'Bank Rotation' gizmo is nearly in line with the red 'Heading Rotation' gizmo at the moment.

This would not only be useless to me, it would mean that I couldn't rotate one of the two directions.

So, again, I tell layout to use the 'Bank Rotation Handle' setting for that bone, from the drop-down menu select 'Record Pivot Rotation'.



Something remarkably different has occurred.



Something that those who have struggled with skelegons forever might not even believe.

The pitch is correct for the bicep!!! (...and I never, ever use multiple exclamation points).

Did I hear a gasp? Yes, there it is plain as day, the rotation gizmos are now properly aligned for the bicep.

Next, lets select the 'ArmForearm' bone.

I'll drop away the smooth shaded arm so you can just see the skelegon rotation gizmo.



At the moment, the pitch would have the elbow go sideways from the way the pitch should be.

Again, I tell layout to use the 'Bank Rotation Handle' setting for that bone, from the drop-down menu select 'Record Pivot Rotation'.



More gasps. The forearm's 'Pitch' circle is now correctly aligned.



And, when I rotate the forearm's bone...



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