# Blender 3D: Noob to Pro/Bones

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Bones are a modeling tool that are especially important for animating
characters. Bones allow you to move characters\' limbs in a way that is
much simpler than trying to re-arrange the vertices every time.

It works by associating a bone with particular vertices, causing them to
move along with the bone when the position is changed in pose mode.
Using bones is fairly simple once you get the hang of it, but, like many
things in Blender, can be a little daunting at first sight.

Bones don\'t do much on their own; in fact, they turn invisible at
render time. For this following module we\'ll use the character that we
had made by the end of the module Putting Hat on
Person. You
will have to have completed all the modules in Section
2B.
Note that while we will be using bones on a simple person, the process
can be used with any creature or body type you imagine!

## Laying down bones

![](Bones_Tutorial_-_Setup.png "Bones_Tutorial_-_Setup.png"){width="400"}

*Note: This just shows the basics of adding bones to an object. Go to
the advanced
animation
page for a more comprehensive guide on this.*

First of all, we\'ll need a model to put some bones on! For this
tutorial, we\'re going to use a humanoid model. Open the model that you
had created by the end of the Putting Hat on
Person
tutorial, or download a pre-made model from
here.

Here\'s our setup, with Block Dude standing on a plane. You can add a
plane by pressing  → *Mesh* →
*Plane*. Scale the plane to an appropriate size and move it so that it
is approximately underneath the person.

**Noob note:** You will be placing armatures (\"bones\") inside your
humanoid, so you must work in \"wireframe mode\", not \"solid mode\".
Otherwise, you will not be able to see the armatures when you place
them. To toggle between \"solid\" and \"wireframe\", press
. You may find it helpful to make the
wireframe less complex by hiding the subsurface mesh. You can do this by
going to the Modifier context panel
![](Blender255ObjectModifiersContextButton.png "Blender255ObjectModifiersContextButton.png")
of the Properties window
![](Blender_2.59_Properties_ico.png "Blender_2.59_Properties_ico.png")
and deselecting the eye button.

**Note:** An alternative to working in \"wireframe mode\" is to turn
\"X-Ray\" on for the armature. To do this, select the armature. In the
properties panel under *object* there is a display menu. Click \"X-Ray\"
in the second field of buttons. This will allow the armature to show
through other objects.

## Add a bone

![](Bones_Tutorial_-_First_Bone.png "Bones_Tutorial_-_First_Bone.png"){width="400"}

Now, let\'s put some bones on Block Dude! In Object Mode press
 *→ Armature → Single Bone*.

What we are looking at is an armature. This is a single bone. Now, we
need to put the bone in Block Dude! Move and rotate the bone so that
it\'s in the middle of Block Dude\'s chest. If your bone does not have
the correct length, then change the size of the bone by moving one of
the ends of the bone: switch to Edit Mode, select one of the ends of the
bone, then move it using . Alternatively,
you can scale it using 


## Extrude a second Bone

![](Bones_Tutorial_-_Finished_Skeleton.png "Bones_Tutorial_-_Finished_Skeleton.png"){width="400"}
To create a second bone starting from one of the ends of the first bone,
switch to Edit Mode with the bone selected, select the end of the bone,
then extrude  the end. A second bone
appears, with its start point on the selected end of the first bone.
Move the mouse to position the end point, then press
, , or
. Scale the bone as needed to fit it
in his body, and continue adding bones by extruding the end points.
These operate much the same way as vertices: you can extrude, rotate,
move, and even subdivide. Your finished result should look something
like this: 

## Name the bones

![](Bones_Tutorial_-_Naming_Bone.png "Bones_Tutorial_-_Naming_Bone.png"){width="400"}
Now, just to make things easier, we\'re going to name the bones. For
example, my bones are named \"Right Forearm\", \"Left Forearm\", \"Right
Upper Arm\", etc. While in Edit mode, select the bone you want to
rename. In the Outliner
![](Blender_2.59_Outliner_ico.png "Blender_2.59_Outliner_ico.png"), the
bone you have selected will be visible with a circle around it
![](Blender_Armature_Bone_icon_(selected).png "Blender_Armature_Bone_icon_(selected).png").
You may need to expand the Armature Object
![](Blender_Armature_Object_icon.png "Blender_Armature_Object_icon.png"),
Armature Data Object
![](Blender_Armature_Data_icon.png "Blender_Armature_Data_icon.png") and
any parent bones before being able to view the selected bone. In the
Bone context panel
![](Blender270BoneContextButton.PNG "Blender270BoneContextButton.PNG")
of the Properties window click the name field to edit the name.

**Noob Note:** When you are naming the bones remember that if you are
looking at the person from the front, your left is the person\'s right.
To make the naming easier switch to viewing the person from behind using
.)

## Parent the bones

Now, we need to parent the bones to the mesh. Go back into Object Mode
and select Block Dude (and the Hat, assuming you made one). Now, select
the Armature as well, so that it is the last object selected, and press
. The Parenting Menu will pop up.
Select *Armature Deform* → *With Automatic Weights*. The person (and
hat) are now children of the armature.

**Noob Note:** The selection order is important in defining which object
is the parent, so you cannot select both objects at the same time. You
must select the armature last to make it the parent. Also please note if
you have problems with deformation you need to rest the rest position of
the bones this is easily achieved by going to pose edit mode select all
bones and CTRL -A then apply pose as rest position .

## Moving the Bones

![](Bones_Tutorial_-_Finished_Render.png "Bones_Tutorial_-_Finished_Render.png"){width="400"}
To move individual bones, you have to go into Pose Mode. Select the
Armature in Object Mode and switch to Pose Mode by pressing
 or selecting the mode in the mode
selection menu of the 3D Viewer. Try moving a bone around by pressing
 (sic) to select it, and then hitting
 or  to move
it.

If you\'ve done everything correctly, your mesh should move when you
move the bones! If this doesn\'t happen, scale the bones up so that they
fit better in the mesh, and scale up the bones until they do what you
want (read comment in the parenting section above on adjusting the bones
envelopes if you do not get an effect while moving/rotating the bones).
With the bones now, you can put Block Dude into a lot of different
positions without moving individual vertices.

To the right is an example of how you can move Block Dude with the
bones.

Also while in pose mode if after a 
click you can\'t move bones with  or
, check the \"Move Object Centers Only\"
button (just to the right of the Rotation/Scaling Pivot button).


## In-Depth Info on Selected Bone Topics

### Add/remove mesh from bone control

![](Bones_Tutorial_-_Vertex_Grouping.png "Bones_Tutorial_-_Vertex_Grouping.png"){width="400"}
**Noob Note:** If you\'ve been adding bones to your simple person from
the previous lessons, you will have likely noticed that the hat seems to
stretch when you move the arms in pose mode. To fix this, you will need
to remove the hat from the forearm vertex groups created in the
Parenting step.

To manually change the mesh areas that the bones control, go to Object
Mode and select the object you want to add/remove (if the mesh is inside
the same object, then select only the areas of the mesh you want to work
with in Edit Mode).

In this case, select the Hat.

Switch to the Object Data context panel in the Properties window and
scroll to the \"Vertex Groups\" submenu.

Now pick the bone group from the dropdown above the Assign/Remove
buttons, and then hit Assign (or Remove) as necessary. Usually vertices
will be assigned to one group, but can be assigned to multiple groups.
In this case, we want to remove the Hat from the Forearm vertex groups.
Select the Forearm vertex groups and press the remove button, as
pictured. With both of the Forearm vertex groups removed from the hat,
it should be able to move properly with the rest of the armature.

#### Mesh deforms like it\'s far away from the bones

If the mesh is properly assigned to the bones they will move regardless
of whether the bones are inside the volume of the mesh or not (HOW they
deform WILL be affected however). The most common mistake in this step
is creating and (more importantly) parenting the mesh to the armature
while the armature is outside the mesh, which causes Blender not to
assign vertices to any bone groups at all.

You can check this by editing the object (i.e. select the mesh and
switch to Edit Mode, then un-select all vertices by pressing A until
nothing is selected). Pick the *Object data* context then select a
vertex group in the *Object data tab**, press**Select*\'. This will
select the vertices associated with the bone group. If the wrong
vertices appear selected, you need to assign them manually as explained
above.

If there is no effect, in Edit mode select that bone (or bones) and
choose Envelope display mode (**Properties** window
![](Blender_2.59_Properties_ico.png "Blender_2.59_Properties_ico.png"),
*Armature context panel → Display → Envelope*), then press
 and increase its area of
influence to cover all faces that should be influenced by the bone.

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