adjusting bones in non-rest position?

[illusory]

What if you had animated your character, and found that you wanted to adjust the length of a pair of bones, so that the mesh would deform more appropriately? And you did not have the rest position of the character in your animation....

What would you do?

This is the problem I have. So I can't go back to the rest position and adjust the bones there. How/where do I adjust them?

thanks for any help,
NJ

[toby]

It's going to be tricky, so save a new scene before trying this stuff, also, when you think you've got it, clear the scene and reload it, sometimes things will work until you clear the scene, then open up as a mess. Don't ask, I don't know why.

Put the slider at frame -1, select all the bones, and with the rotate tool selected hit 'Reset', then keyframe all the bones. Now you have the rest position to make your changes with.

[illusory]

Ok, I will try that on a copy of the scene...

In LW 8.3, there is a tool called "set bone rest length". Can I use this on the first frame to lengthen the bone for the whole animation? Even if the figure is not in rest position?

Thanks much,
NJ

[toby]

Ok, I will try that on a copy of the scene...

In LW 8.3, there is a tool called "set bone rest length". Can I use this on the first frame to lengthen the bone for the whole animation? Even if the figure is not in rest position?

Thanks much,
NJ
I'm pretty sure the rest length will stay the same for the whole animation.

[Dodgy]

Rest length, position, and rotation are only used to determine how each bone affects the undeformed mesh. when the bones' are reset, in position and rotation and scale, they go back to this rest set up. You can change the rest positions of selected bones at any time by pressing 'r', and this will record their rest position and rotation, but the length you'll have to set separately using the Bone rest length tool .