Although I have been using Blender professionally for many years, I am new to rigging in Blender. I am going through the Blender training DVD Humane Rigging by Nathan Vegdahl Chapter 2 (02b.webm). FYI, I am using Blender v2.65 and in the particular training video Nathan is using v2.60.
The Problems I am having:
First, I am unable to select any bone that I desire or multiple bones with Shift+select in Edit Mode in the 3D View. I am only able to select the currently selected bone that is already selected in the Outliner or that was previously selected in Object Mode. I can select any bone I want in the Outliner and I can Shift+select any bones in the Outliner but NOT in Edit Mode in the 3D View as Nathan is able to do. Why not? What am I missing?
Second, Nathan is able to select two bones in Edit Mode and then press Ctrl+P to bring up a menu that says “Make Parent” followed by the two menu options “Connected” and “Keep Offset”. What I get when I press Ctrl+P is an entirely different menu containing Object, Object (Keep Transform), Armature Deform (with sub-options) and Bone. Why can I not get to this same menu or find any way to get to this menu? Aside from extracting a new bone from another one at bone creation, how do I select two bones and make them connected into a bone chain (preferably with a hot key)?
First, I am unable to select any bone that I desire or multiple bones with Shift+select in Edit Mode in the 3D View. I am only able to select the currently selected bone that is already selected in the Outliner or that was previously selected in Object Mode. I can select any bone I want in the Outliner and I can Shift+select any bones in the Outliner but NOT in Edit Mode in the 3D View as Nathan is able to do. Why not? What am I missing?
Attach or post a link to your blend file.
Second, Nathan is able to select two bones in Edit Mode and then press Ctrl+P to bring up a menu that says “Make Parent” followed by the two menu options “Connected” and “Keep Offset”. What I get when I press Ctrl+P is an entirely different menu containing Object, Object (Keep Transform), Armature Deform (with sub-options) and Bone. Why can I not get to this same menu or find any way to get to this menu? Aside from extracting a new bone from another one at bone creation, how do I select two bones and make them connected into a bone chain (preferably with a hot key)?
Connected and Offset are when you are in Pose Mode, the options you get are when you are in Edit Mode http://screencast.com/t/TTlTSiNa
Richard, Thanks for trying to help me. In the process of creating a response video to you, I actually solved my own problem. You see, I was initially creating the three separate bones in Object Mode and so in Edit Mode I could only select and edit one of them. What Nathan was doing was actually different. He was creating one bone in Object Mode and then in Edit Mode selecting that bone and then duplicating it twice so that all 3 bones are essentially one editable object. When doing this I do get the menu that I was looking for but when working with 3 separate objects I got the other menu. I am able to get the Connected and Offset menu in Edit Mode and not just Pose Mode. Thanks for your help.