I am a beginner in rigging and I stuck on a particular point about the constraints of rotation of a bone.
I would not apply these constraints to the axes x / y / z of the bone itself, but to the axes x / y / z of the “world”.
Let me explain: when I position my first bone, its axes are those of the world, no problem to define constraints. But the following I extruded I necessarily apply their various rotations to stick to my mesh.
So in pose mode, the x axis of each bone for example is not at all oriented relative to the axis x of my scene. What makes rather complex (at least to me) definition of the constraint. When I limit the rotation x such a high part of a leg, I will compare it to the x axis of the scene, not to the bone x axis (which will match for example the z-axis of the scene/world).
Is there no solution like using “Ctrl-A> apply all” to align the axes of the bone with those of the scene? I’m looking, no way to find a solution.
Tell us what you are trying to animate. If you use objects to animate, you can use world coordinate. If you use Armature, each bone will have its own local coordinate. So then for rigging, one strives to set up the bone in such a way so that its movement works logically along with world axis.
Thanks a lot ridix. I am not trying to animate something, I have to make some poses with a knight. I have understand that bones have local coordinate (technically I understand why it is mandatory to apply these constraints on a “local” bone which is a part of an armature). I think you are right, in my case it is maybe the easiest (and fastest) way to set up the bones logically with the world axis during these definition.
I would definately start out by turning on the ‘view’ of the bones Axis…
Select your Armature > Properties Panel > Armature (little man icon) > Display > check the box that says “Axis”
now you at least can see which way all your axis for each individual bone are pointing… (the Axis are on the Tip … not the Base… of each bone)
(that some times can get confusing when you have a mesh of bones all connected to one another…)
note that all bones point down the ‘Y’ Axis when in pose mode…
and that you can adjust the 'default set rotation of the other two Axis around the ‘Y’ axis when you are in edit mode …
Select your bone > Right hand Tool bar > Transform > Roll:… set this to any Angle you need to align a bone for default orientation in Pose mode…