Rig Config Panel

Bone Deform Settings

Not all bones take direct influence on the mesh. In fact by default only the 26 SL Base Bones of the Avastar Rig are directly used as Deforming bones for (classic) skeletal Mesh animation.

If we want to use the Bento bones, then we need to enable the Extended SL Bones as deforming bones. And if we want to create Fitted Mesh then we additionally have to enable the 26 Collision Volume Bones for deforming.

Note: The Bone Deform Settings are only available in Pose mode and in Edit mode

However when you create a Rig in Avastar-2 you normally do not have to take care of the deform Bone settings. Avastar now enables all SL bones (Basic, Extended and Volume Bones) as deform bones. The Panel still exists so that you can setup things individually:

  • Deform: Disable or Enable the selected Bones as Deform Bones.
  • SL: Disable or Enable the entire set of SL Base Bones as Deform Bones
  • Ext: Disable or Enable the entire set of SL Extended Bones (Bento Bones) as Deform Bones
  • Vol: Disable or Enable the entire set of Collision Volume Bones as Deform Bones
Hint: When your Skeleton refused to animate the mesh and when you are Sure the weight maps exist for your bones and they are filled with reasonable weights, then often the Bones are not marked as Deform Bones. In that case you can use this Panel for instant fixing.

Structure Constraints

The Avastar Rig also contains a set of Structure Bones, although there are no corresponding SL Base Bone available. The structure Bones are mostly beneficial for Animation when you create non Human characters like Quadrupeds for example (dogs, cats, lions, horses, …)
By default the Structure Bones are not selectable. But when you work on non human skeletons you often want to reposition the structure bones as well.
This is where the Structure Enable button comes into Play. When you enable Structure you can move the Structure Bones around just like all the other Control bones.
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Spine Control

More about the Spine

The spine is a set of 4 bones which are by default folded into the Rig as seen on the image aside. In fact we have a lower spine part (mSpine1 and mSpine2) and an upper spine part (mSpine3 and mSpine4)

The two parts are separated by the Torso bone (mTorso)

You see the topology of the Spine bones best when they are fully unfolded. (The 4 Spine bones are colorized in red for better visibility).

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The rig control panel provides a section for unfolding and folding the spone bones:

  • Reset Spine: fold the spine bones into the neutral Spine default pose
  • (Un-)Fold Lower: fold/unfold only the lower spine bones
  • (Un-)Fold Upper: fold/unfold only the upper spine bones

Note: The eye icon makes the Spine bones visible or invisible depending on its select state.

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