Hi Stu,
Ok...I've tried discussing this same 'bone' vs' 'bone' issue with other 3d artists (some who are far more experienced than I), and even THEN we could not get the point across easily when dealing with different types of 'bones.' Even worse...I come to find out there ARE no official terms to differentiate between a bone that you animate with and a bone that is a part of your model. So don't feel bad at all Stu, so far everyone I've talked to about this has gotten just as confused.
I hope this helps. I'm posting an image which I hope will at least put us on proper speakign terms when it comes to these bone discussions. We're dealing with TWO types of bones. I'll try to make each type clearly defined below, but please, if you have a better way of differentiating between these two types, speak up! I'm quite open for suggestions! [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_cool.gif[/img]
control bone - a more specific term for the commonly referred to tool that most 3d programs call 'bones'. This type of bone is not a physical polygon mesh. It will NOT show up when you render. Rather, it is a control handle, which allows you to deform your 3d model, setup joint restrictions, and setup forward/inverse kinematic chains. They can be connected together through a child/parent hierarchy.
model bone - a term used to describe a bone which is part of the physical polygon model. For instance, if one were trying to model a skeleton, the object would consist of many model bones. These bones are made of polygons and they will show up when you render.
Now, I hope that doesn't confuse the issue more...and please Stu, if it does, say so. If we can't discuss 3d at this level then it puts a real dampener on the forum. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_frown.gif[/img] Ok...so lets hope this clears it up. In the image below, I show how LightWave highlights the "control bones" as yellow. Those control bones have little red, green, and blue arrows coming from their base for manipulation. They aren't physically there though, so they won't show up when rendering. They are only used to modify and manipulate the polygon mesh. On the image to the left (with the black background) you can see the rendered version, and how the control bones don't show up. The model bone DOES show up, because it's a part of the model, just like the eyes and teeth are a part of the dragon model. Let me know if this explanation is clear and efficient enough to use Stu...if so we can go ahead and use these two specific terms when we need to differentiate between different types of bones... [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_rolleyes.gif[/img]
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