What is a scenario where disabling the deform option of a Bone(s) be useful. Isn't the whole point of using Bones/ Armature to move Mesh Objects.
When the bone isn't used to deform the mesh. Like control bones, and mechanism bones. Also for bones that are used for mathematics and addon. I belive they are called origin or original bones. For example out of the 706 bones produced by rigify only 160 are deforming bones.
Ohhhh, those Bones that are out by themselves near joints on an Armature, single Bones just behind or in front of character rigs right.
I'm not at a stage of properly understanding how it all fits together. From what I'm seeing, there's two types of Bones that are separate from the whole Rig that moves a mesh, Control Bones and Inverse Kinematic Bones, correct?
In more advance rig you will have the IK control bone, pole target bone along with the mechanic bones(Copy of some of the deform bones) and FK control bones(Another copy of some of the deform bones) that then can be switched between(Thru constraints on the deform bones and drivers). As a mater of fact, there's a hotkey Shift+W->Deform that will toggle the deform option on all selected bones by default. You can use the adjust last operator(Bottom left corner of 3D Viewport or press F9) and change it to enable or disable.
The Redo menu I know about, thanks for the tip of pressing F9 to bring back the menu after it disappears. After watching a few videos, I understand now why some Bones need to have the Deform turned off. Thanks a lot for the help Dwayne, there's a lot of unpack over the coming days.
I had seen those Bones that help direct the Rig while messing around with imported models a long time ago, and figured out that they controlled the direction of whichever part of the body they were attached to. I however thought that they were part of some paid addon that pros use and not something you could set up within Blender without the correct coded functionally that would allow for someone to make it work.
Hi Robbie,
As Dwayne has mentioned, there are many reasons for disabling the 'deform' option on bones.
In this course (the next chapter in fact) you will learn the 3 main purposes for all bones in a rig.
Deform bones, Mechanism bones, and Control bones.
Control bones are the ones you animate, the mechanism bones are there so the rig functions in the way you need (an IK chain for an arm, for example), and Deform bones are the ones that moved the geometry, but they are pushed and pulled by the other 2 types.
I won't give you any more spoilers ;) but I hope you enjoy the course.
Fun fact though - there are often way more bones in your rig that DO NOT deform the geo that do.
I am inconceivably enjoying this course. From all the way back in 2014 when I was riddled with self-doubt about being able to understand everything 3D art related (Generalist thinking), chipping away at the more technical processes like Rigging and Animation has increased that sense of confidence with comprehending the terminologies and basic techniques of these 'behind the scenes' aspects to 3D art so much. I'm looking so forward to getting to the stage of being able to animate some of the storyboarded ideas/ short cinematics that I have drawn/ written down.
As for the types of Bones that are found in an Armature, last night while reading over Dwayne's responses I was looking at basic overview videos on setting up Mechanism Bones and what part they play in the overall armature in reducing the angle the Deform Bones have where they look unnatural/ twisted.
Control Bones in the basic form of how they can be used to move Deform Bones between 2 set keyframes. (I think) Pretty much what I saw was similar to Shape Keys.
But yeah, you've been absolutely fantastic with your explanations through out the videos. I've taken so many notes.