I have two noob questions that I could really use a hand with. Help on either one is appreciated.
When rigging a long line, such as an animal’s spine, is it better for the bone tips to be pointing towards the head, or towards the tail?
Let’s say I needed to rig two symmetrical limbs with symmetrical bones. I used (and applied) the mirror modifier to get the model even, but obviously that doesn’t work with the bones. I tried duplicating one limb, but then there’s no way to attach that new limb to the rest of the rig. How can I get this fixed so that I have identical limbs attached to the same bone group?
Symmetrical bones should be named with their side. ForeArm.L and ForeArm.R, Thigh.L and Thigh.R for instance. When you parent with automatic weights it will generate vertex groups for each side symmetrically.
As for bone direction, most rigging have it so that the main mover bone moves the core of the body. And, all other bones radiates from that core. The pelvis bone parents all other bone chain. That means string of bones pointing out to head, hand, feet or tail.
