One other thing to notice is that neither R-key rotation nor S-key scaling seem to have any effect on thissingle bone node.This bone will be the master bone for the entire armature, meaning that all other bones you add will beconnected to it either directly or indirectly, so that when the master bone is transformed, the entire armaturewill follow it. You could leave it pointing up like this, but most people find that this sort of master bone isbetter visualized horizontally.Switch to a side view, and, using the G-key, move the tip of the bone back and downward until it lines uphorizontally with the root of the bone. Holding down the Ctrl-key while doing the transformation will help youto get it right on. The length doesn't really matter, but you should make it stick far enough out behind Hankthat it will be easy to select even during a cluttered animation session.Figure RST.05: The tip of the master bone moved back and down.RMB click in the center of the bone (anywhere on the bone except the tip and root balls) to select the entirething. When you do this, more information appears in the Transform Properties panel, as well as in the editbuttons. One of those properties is the bone name. LMB click on the bone name, in either the ArmatureBones or Transform Properties panel, and rename it "master."Figure RST.06: The bone renamed to "master."Notice how a part of the bone is hidden by Hank's feet? When you go to work on the rest of the armature,this could certainly be a problem. If the mesh hides the bones, how can you work on it? You could use the Z-key to toggle into wireframe mode, but there is a better way.Figure RST.07: The X-Ray button.Enable the "X-Ray" button on the Armature panel of the Edit buttons. Now, the armature will always draw infront of the mesh.Callout:- When beginning an armature, add a master bone at the same location as the mesh object's center.- X-Ray will show bones that would ordinarily be hidden by a mesh.The Spine, Neck and HeadYou could add a bone for each and every vertebra in the spinal column, but fortunately you don't need thatlevel of articulation. As Hank is a very simple mesh, just two spine bones, with one each for the neck andhead, will suffice.Use the toolbox to add a new bone, with Add->Bone. When the new bone appears, RMB click on the mainbody of the bone to select the whole thing, then use the G-key to move it so that the root of the new bonerests near the pivot point of Hank's hip.Figure RST.08: The base bone of the spine, moved into place.RMB select only the tip of the spine bone and move it to the small of Hank's back. Although the spine on acharacter like Hank would be flexible along its entire length in real life, if bent, it would mostly deform thebody in two different zones: the upper and lower back. So, it makes sense to put the pivot point of one of your bones at that same point in the body.Figure RST.09: The tip of the spine base, adjusted to the small of the back.From here, the rest of the spine is easy to construct. Hold down the Ctrl key and LMB click on the indicatedareas in the illustration:
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