Converting, Organizing, and Aligning

3. Maximize a Schematic view (by pressing the numeric keypad’s

0 key, which toggles the “maximized view” mode on and off,

just as in Modeler) and organize your character into an iconic

representation of a human. As in Figure 5.6, I lean toward a

classic da Vinci layout, giving the rough impression of the

character standing spread eagle, palms up.

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Figure 5.6. Animation can be pretty hectic. Every bit of organization you can do

beforehand helps. With the controls for your character laid out like this, you can

quickly choose the control you need without having to scroll through a list. (This

illustration is only a suggestion; it is what works best for me. Feel free to innovate

and find what works best for you!)

5.3 Aligning the Spine, Pelvis, and Feet

Because the skelegon “bank rotation handle” is a little cryptic to

understand, sometimes you’ll find that you’ll need to adjust the rota￾tion axes of the bones as Layout has created them from Modeler’s

skelegons.

1. Select the Root bone.

Depending on the viewport in which skelegons were created,

bones created from these skelegons can have a +/–90º bank rota￾tion to them (even if the bank rotation handle was never touched).

This flip-flops what we would think of as heading and bank for the

bone, its children, or both! This isn’t a huge problem, and we could

easily work around it. But when we’re deeply engrossed in a scene,

and the familiar left-right mouse movement that usually means “I’m

rotating in heading” instead rotates these few bones in pitch, it can

feel like an unnecessary speed bump in the roadway of production.

So, here’s how we’re going to fix it.

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Figure 5.7. Pitch is what we would normally think of in LightWave as the axis to

rotate an item forward and backward (around its X-axis). With the way Root is

currently oriented, in order to bend the character forward and backward we would

have to use heading (represented by the red circle on your screen).

2. Select your character’s

mesh (object).

3. Choose Items|Add|

Clone ^C and enter 1

for the number of clones.

(See Figure 5.8.)

4. In a Schematic window,

move this new object to

a place where it won’t

interfere visually with

the original model and

its hierarchy.

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Note:

I’ve found the Clone command to

work more reliably than the Clone

Hierarchy command.

Note:

Under Display Options|Schematic

View, you'll find a check box

labeled “Drag Descendants.” When

this box is unchecked, each “node”

within a Schematic view can be

moved independently of all the oth￾ers. When this is checked, moving

something in a Schematic view also

moves all of its children — this is

what you’ll want for Step 4.

Figure 5.8. Your model will be cloned, along with all its bone structure.

5. With the clone of your model still selected, open the Classic

Scene Editor and choose Select|Select All Bones of Cur￾rent Object.

6. With all the bones of the cloned model selected, within the

Scene Editor select Colors|Color Selected Items|Orange.

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Figure 5.9. All the bones of the cloned model will be

selected.

Note:

The bones you just colored orange will be guides for us to

match as we rotate our model back into alignment. If you

notice in the Current Item field that you’ve got an orange

bone selected, stop! LightWave only has one level of undo

in Layout. Make sure you have the right bone selected

before making changes.

7. Select the Root bone of your original mesh. (It should be cyan,

not orange.)

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Figure 5.10. All the bones you have selected will be colored orange.

Figure 5.11. Just making sure that the correct bone is selected.