2009

It’s useful to add extra joints in areas of the character where you want the
surface to keep its volume upon deformation. In the next steps, you’ll add
ribs to Jackie’s skeleton. Although you will not bind the character in this
lesson, the technique of adding ribs is important to learn so that when you
do bind a character, the skin in the torso area will not collapse as you pose
shoulder and spinal rotations. The rib joints are for structure only, not for
posing the skeleton.
To add ribs to the skeleton
1 In the Hypergraph, click the mid_back joint to highlight the joint in the
front view. Remember the location of the joint in the front view so you
can select it later.
2 Select Skeleton > Joint Tool.
3 In the front view, click on the mid_back joint to select it again.
4 Click to the side of the joint to add a rib bone, then press Enter (Windows
and Linux) or Return (Mac OS X).
5 With the same technique as in the prior steps, create two more ribs for
the left side. The ribs extend from the mid_back, lower_back, and pelvis
joints.
312 | Chapter 7 Character Setup