The Toolbox - Joints

The Joints tab of the Toolbox allows the organisation of joints in the skeleton and the assignment of vertices to joints, making the model ready for animation. The image below shows the Joints tab of the Toolbox. Click on the part you wish to see a description for.

Joint Selector Box

This list box is used to highlight the joint you wish to operate on. One line is occupied per joint with the name of the joint identifying it.

Rename Button & Box

This button and edit box allows the highlighted joint to be renamed. First highlight the joint to rename then type the new name into the box to the right of the Rename button then click the Rename button to rename it.

Select Assigned

When a joint is highlighted pressing this button will select all the vertices assigned to that particular joint.

Select Unassigned

Pressing this button will select all vertices not assigned to a joint. Some game engines require that all vertices are assigned to a joint.

Assign

This allows vertices to be assigned to joints in order to set the model up for animation. To assign vertices to a joint, choose the Select-Vertices tool from the model tab, highlight the joint in the Joint Selector box that you wish to assign the vertices to, then select the vertices and press assign.

Clear

This button, when pressed will clear all of the assigned vertices from the highlighted joint in the Joint Selector box.

Show Skeleton

This checkbox can by toggled to show the skeleton or hide it. This can be useful if there are model amendments to be made after a skeleton is created.