Changing the Rest Length tells LightWave to give this bone a larger
range of influence??”that is, the area or range that the bone is affecting.
Figure 12.8 Change the rest length of the bone so that it will deform a larger area. Do this
from the bone??™s Properties panel.
When scaling a bone to match the length of a model??™s limb, spine, or what have
you, you must adjust its rest length, not its size. This can??™t be stressed enough. The
Rest Length setting is the final length of the bone before it is made active??”in
other words, its resting position. The number-one mistake LightWave animators
make with bones is to use the Size tool and change the actual size of the bone
instead of its rest length.
Once a bone??™s rest length is set and the bone is activated, resizing the bone will
cause a comparable size change in the portion(s) of the model influenced by the
bone. A simple application of this would enable an object to ???breathe??? by expanding
and contracting slightly; more advanced applications could allow objects to
inflate, characters to shrink, and so on.
Inside LightWave v9 504
Chapter 12 Bones and Rigging 505
What you??™ve done here is create a spine for the Penguin object.
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