Reply To: Proper Root Bone Placement

[Wayne Dixon]

Excellent question Bryan.

The others have already given great responses, but I’ll try to summerise and add some points.

Where do you place the root in the armature?

Always at 0,0,0 aligned with the world.   This will make many things easier if it matches the world (trust me!)

Where do you place the root/armature object when you animate?

This one is more subjective.  It might come down to the production, personal preference or the easiest spot to handle for that specific animation.

In my other job, we always start with the armature object (origin) at 0,0,0 and then we position the Root_GOD  aligned with the world at the starting point of the animation in the scene (we also have 2 root controls).  This is to make everything easier to problem solve if the animation gets out of whack with the scene.

But then there is still the “Root” to position.  Where should that go?

Well that depends on the shot and/or personal preference.

Let’s say your character is doing a some action like walking into frame, stopping, then turning about 90 degrees to face the camera.

Well you could start with the root off screen where he starts walking, use a walk cycle (where the root translates) all the way up to where he slows down, stop the root there and then animate the other controls moving away from the root at that point.

Each shot might be different though.

If you are animating the arcing ball bounce for example (with only 1 root).  You would position the root on the ground where the ball starts, and then drag the body of the ball into the air and start from there.  This is a logical place, but really the root could be anywhere.

In that example you would not need to animate the root at all – unless you need to tweak something.  

I think I mentioned that the shot I was working on at the time (frog jumping across the screen) it was approved but the director wanted it a little closer to the camera.  With the root control – I moved it where he wanted it and I was done.  I did not have to touch any of the keyframes on the rest of the character.

Hope that makes sense.