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So I'm animating a model, I've rigged it and because it's all extruded, the bones should all be connected.

I'm working on the walk cycle animation and then I notice this:

Property of CraftyMaelyss

I'm not sure how this happened but I tried Ctrl + P and selected Connected in edit mode but when I went back to Pose mode, it was still like this. Does anyone know what could have caused this?

Also because this model is for an upcoming game, I cannot upload or share it, sorry :(

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  • $\begingroup$ Can you post the .blend using Blend Exchange? $\endgroup$
    – Mentalist
    Commented Feb 23, 2017 at 1:03
  • $\begingroup$ Please read the entire post, because I already said that I cannot share the model's file due to it being in an upcoming game. $\endgroup$
    – CraftyMaelyss
    Commented Feb 23, 2017 at 5:00
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    $\begingroup$ I don't need to see the model. Can you delete everything but just the few bones in question around the pelvic area - then share that part of the Armature only? You can Append it to a new .blend if that's easier that deleting the other things in your project. $\endgroup$
    – Mentalist
    Commented Feb 23, 2017 at 5:09
  • $\begingroup$ The first of the two links you posted links to a .blend1 file, which is a backup of your project. By sharing this you accidentally shared the model you said you didn't want to share. You should delete your comment or take down the URL if you're concerned about others downloading it. $\endgroup$
    – Mentalist
    Commented Feb 23, 2017 at 15:45

1 Answer 1

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You'll find that if you select the bone you want to be the child, then shift-select the bone you want to be the parent and press CtrlP, then choose the "Connected" method of parenting, the bone will become a connected child of the parent.

When parenting a bone as connected, the child must move to the tip of the parent

But it will also do something you probably didn't expect - jump to the tip of its parent bone instead of the root. This is because this is necessary in order for it to be "connected". Bones are unidirectional in their flow of parenting hierarchy. That is to say that each bone's root is like its beginning, and each bone's tip is like its end, and each connected child bone must begin where its parent bone ends.

If a bone is not "connected" that means a gap of distance is allowed between the tip (end) of one bone and the root (beginning) of the next, but the root of the child is still relative to the tip of the parent, as you can see by rotating a parent bone in Pose Mode and watching how its child bone moves.

It is possible that you selected your bone's root and extruded, thinking it would be connected (because it looks the same when you do it) but in reality the newly extruded bone was not created as a child at all. If you select a bone's tip and extrude however, you will get a connected child bone. It's easy to get confused by this at first.

Extruding from a bone's tip results in a connected child bone, while extruding from a bone's root results in an unconnected bone that is not a child

The Outliner is your friend, and will reveal to you the hierarchy of your bones or parented objects. The Relations section of the Bone Context can also show you if the active bone has a parent or not.

Here is how to tell whether a bone is parented or not

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  • $\begingroup$ Cheers :-) Good luck with your project. $\endgroup$
    – Mentalist
    Commented Feb 23, 2017 at 23:53

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