Joints are used to define a skeleton structure consisted of bones that is used to animate a model at runtime. ShapeShifter 3D allows the creation of skeletons and assignment of vertices to each joint. To create a joint select the CREATE JOINT tool in the CREATE Palette, and click on a Viewport. If you create a joint while other joint is selected the new one becomes a child of the parent joint: it will move and rotate automatically when the parent is moved. Joints can be selected, renamed and deleted in the JOINTS Tab.

In order for joints to operate and deform geometry you need to assign vertices to a particular joint in the skeleton. In ShapeShifter 3D this is done in an easy way: simply select a group of faces or vertices in any viewport window. Click on a joint name in the joints list, and click the ASSIGN button. You can also select a joint and click the SELECT ASSIGNED button to check which vertices are assigned to a particular joint. It is possible to clear joint assignment for a group of selected vertices by using the UNASSIGN button. And you can use the SELECT ALL UNASSIGNED button at any time to select vertices that are currently not assigned to any joint. For a smooth deformation of your model it is a good idea to have all vertices assigned to a joint.

The current version of ShapeShifter 3D exports bones data to Shockwave3D, and can optionally export a list of bone names to the USERDATA property of the model. Bones export is only possible if you choose to export all groups as a single model, which is the default option for the Shockwave 3D exporter. If you choose to export each group as a separate model ShapeShifter 3D will not export the skeleton structure. This restriction exists because the bonesplayer modifier is applied only to a single model in Director, and can not influence vertices that belong to different models.

It is possible to use the bones player modifier in Director 8.5 to animate joints using Lingo. When a bone is moved it will also moves the vertices assigned to it. The rest of the model's geometry will deform smoothly to accommodate the change. Please consult Director's documentation for more information on this topic.

You can also visit the TUTORIALS AND SAMPLES page on our web site to download sample director movies and models. There you will find a tutorial available in Quicktime and AVI format that shows the process of creating bones, and a Shockwave movie that shows how to manipulate bones via Lingo for interactive animation. Source code is provided for educational purposes.