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478 Chapter 12: Animation

• NURB S CV —Creates a NURBS CV Curve, where

knots(controlnodes)donotnecessarilylieon

the curve.

Number of Spline K nots—Vertices on the spline, or

control points and CVs on the NURBS curve. You

alter the spline or curve by m oving and animating

the knots. The number of knots sets the degree of

refinement on the curve as well as the number of

points that can be s elected and move d to change

the shape of the curve.

The default value is the number of bones in the

Spline IK chain. Because one purpose of a Spline

IK solver is to reduce the number of objects that

require animation, you might want to use a lower

value, such as half the number of bones.

Helper Options group

Cr e ate H e lpers—When on, t he software places one

or more Point helper (page 2–23) objects at each

knot in the spline or curve, mak ing it easier to

move and animate the k nots.

You can enable more than one ty pe of helper.

When you move one helper, the others at the same

locationalsomove,asdoesthecurveknot.

Center M ar ker —Places a small X-shaped Point

helper at each knot.

Axis Tripod—Places a small tripod-axis-shaped

Pointhelperateachknot.

Cr o s s—Places a sma ll cross-shaped Point helper at

each knot.

Box—Places a small box-shaped Point helper at

each knot.

Size—Setsthesizeforhelpers.

Constant S creen S ize—Keeps the sizes of helpers

constant regardless of the zoom extent of the

viewports.

Draw On Top—Displays the helpers on top of all

other objects in the scene for improve d v isibility

in busy scenes.

Tip: To change the display of helpers after creation,

select each helper and change selections on the

Modify panel.