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424 Chapter 12: Animation
A bones system is a jointed, hierarchical linkage
of bone objects. Bones are used as an ar mature
on to which objects are l inked. If you use the
skin modifier (page 1–781) ,youcan"skin"an
object to the bones, so the animation of the bones
deforms the mesh that models a character. If you
have a jointed character, you can use linkage or
constraints so the bones animate the mesh.
Animating bones w ith skin causes the skin to s tretch or
shrink.
Turning O ther Objects into Bones
Any object can b e turned into a bone object.
Right-click any object and select Properties f rom
the
quad menu (page 3–741) .IntheBonegroup,
choose Bone On/Off. You can then choose Show
Links Only to replace the display of the objects
w ith the bones. This can be useful if you have a
geometrically intensive hierarchy to animate. The
interactive viewport response will be much quick er
when the geometry is hidden and displayed only
at links.
Any object can be displayed as a bone object.
Select any object and open B one Tools f rom
the Character menu. In the Object Properties
rollout, choose Bone On. Then go to the Display
panel, in the Link Display rollout turn on D isplay
Links and Link Replaces Object to display the
bones instead of the object. This can be useful if
you have a geometrically intensive hierarchy to
animate. The interactive v iewport response w ill be
much quicker when the geometry is hidden and
displayed only at links.