Skeleton Menu

Root Bone/ Controller Node

The skeletal hierarchy of the rigged model, which can be found to the left of the screen in the Animation window, will display the root node. This is an empty node that will be the parent of any other base node of your skeleton (sometimes referred to as bones).

When creating your rigs, it is important to maintain a base Controller Node, as having a controller node will allow you to move all nodes at once to set the pivot and to control the general asset’s position. Saving a lot of time and effort moving just the base controller instead of all nodes individually to a new base position.

Child Node

A child node is attached to the root node (the Parent) within the skeleton hierarchy.

This empty node controls the location of any attached model relative to the position of the parent node and will display as a bounding box of 32x32x32 (if bounding boxes view enabled).

If the position of the parent node is adjusted, the child not will follow. However, the child node can be moved independently of the Parent.

Add a Child Node

Click on the three dots to the left of the Root bone will button will give the option to 'Create Child Node'.

There will then be a prompt asking for the 'Name of new Node?' add in your preferred name and press 'Enter'.

You can also use this same process to add a new child node to the existing child node. This creates a chain of influence where the newly created child will treat the previously created child node as its parent node, but will also follow the influence of the root node.

Try to create and use a clear naming convention for new nodes and models.

Adding a Model

A model can be quickly and easily added to a node in the skeleton hierarchy by dragging and dropping a .VXM model file from the Library onto an existing node.

Once added it will follow the position, rotation, and scale of the node it's attached to.

Deleting a Node

Any node (excluding the Root Node) can be deleted by clicking on the three dots next to the nodes name and then navigating to 'Delete Node' in the drop-down menu.

Be aware that all the nodes further down the chain of influence, that treat that node as a parent, will also be deleted - along with any models they may have attached to them.

Remove Model

You can remove the current .VXM model file from a node by left-clicking the three dots to the left of the nodes name in the hierarchy and navigating to 'Unlink VXM from Node'.

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