the 'new' way a char is rigged?

I; I have worked with blender for a while, but quit some time… now, I’ve downloaded some models and they use a peculiar kind of skeleton. one that in the upper body doesn’t really look anything like a skeleton. (see image). i still learned it the old way, but this seems to work great. but I’m having trouble finding tutorials and such on it. how does it work? how do you get the influences right? how can I build my own?


thanks in advance!

Check the armature layers. Most likely the rigger has just left the control bones visible, leaving the deform bones that you’re expecting to see all hidden on other layers.

hi horseman. thanks for responding. I checked and there’s just the one normal layer used and the one protected. I dont see anything hidden there. of course I could be missing it… the protected layer should have something in there as it has a çircle’, but I dont see anything added/ disappearing when I turn it off on and off. checked for hidden stuff with alt-h too.

I got the file from here. maybe I’m looking in the wrong place?

http://tf3dm.com/3d-model/cheetah-68447.html


in blender,the bone without being connected, even if there is a parent constraint.So you can look into something arbitrary, but the effect is the same

hey netzhang. I’m no sure I follow. the bones being this small is arbitrary?

It is arbitrary, but I suspect there are more because I see none in the tail.

I dont think there were any. I added some when animating; without was just silly.

Yes, any size