2010

Table Of Contents
4 Press Enter (Windows and Linux) or Return (Mac OS X) after creating the
toe joint. This completes the joint chain.
5 Select Window > Hypergraph: Hierarchy.
The Hypergraph is a convenient place to select, rename, and parent
objects. It is similar to the Outliner, but it has features tailored for
character setup. For example, it depicts all parent-child relationships in
an easy-to-read indented format.
The Hypergraph shows the default names given to the joints just created:
joint1, joint2, and so on. The joints have a hierarchical relationship.
Joint1 is the parent of joint2, which is the parent of joint3, and so on.
Joint1 is the root of the hierarchy. If you reposition joint1, you reposition
the whole joint chain.
In the scene view, joints are represented by spherical icons. Bones separate
the joints, and are represented by elongated pyramid icons. The narrow
part of a bone points in the downward direction of the hierarchy.
The reason you create the hip joint first and the toe joint last is to have
the hip at the top of the hierarchy and the toe at the bottom. Youll
usually want the toe (and other joints) to move whenever you move the
hip, but not necessarily vice versa. In general, joint chains emanate from
the interior of the character outward.
6 Rename the joints as left_hip, left_knee, left_ankle, left_ball, and left_toe.
To rename a joint, right-click the joint name in the Hypergraph and select
Rename from the drop down menu. Type the new name and press Enter.
7 In the front view, click the left_hip joint to select it. Move it along the
X-axis to the center of the top of the left leg. (In this lesson, left and right
refer to directions from Jackies point of view, not from your view of the
scene.)
As mentioned before, when you move a joint, all joints lower in the
hierarchy move with it. If you press Insert (Windows and Linux) or Home
(Mac OS X) while a joint is selected, you can move the joint without
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