Out of curiosity, what is the purpose of splitting the arm and leg bones? Is this to give more control to the bendy bones down the line and/or to give more control to rolls around the y-axis (for instance, to replicate the ulna/radius motion when rotating the hand)?
Thanks!
Hi Coyo.
Good question.
The bendy limbs are for more control over the shape in animation (but not the roll of the radius and ulna)
In super fast moves you can bend the limbs to help shape the flow in the movement.
And in some normal non fast moves or poses even you can better shape the limbs for what you need.
eg - It's really easy to cross your arms in real life, but with a 3d character it can become difficult.
This pose has a slight bend on the forearm to help shape the arm and hide the weird penetrations.
Thanks for your reply! In your example would the two bones in the forearm be enough to recreate that pose? I'm asking since afaik Blender's b-bones don't export (gracefully) to other softwares (eg. game engines) so I am attempting to get a sense of what the limits are if I wish to export.
Yeah b-bones don't export at all - they will just export as straight non-bendy versions.
There are some (non-graceful) workarounds:
But to answer your other question, you can actually create a bend in the arm with just 1 bone. But that's all it will be able to do (bend).
If you split it into 2 bones. you have a lot more flexibility with the b-bones - like a massive amount.
But splitting it further doesn't add as much more flexibility than if it's just 2 bones.
(hope that makes sense)