■ Moving and Posing Figures with Transpose 233
Figure 7.12 The legs rotated with Symmetry on
- Let’s add a forearm twist. Mask down to the
elbow and draw an action line from the elbow
to the wrist. Click in the wrist endpoint, then
Alt-drag in the center point. Since we clicked in
the wrist endpoint, the rotation will be concen-
trated in the forearm and give us a nice twist
(Figure 7.13). - We’ll use bone posing for the elbow bend.
Bone posing is a built-in skinning algorithm that
stretches faces on one side of a pivot while com-
pressing them on the other. This helps approxi-
mate the deformation of skin and muscle around
a skeletal joint (Figure 7.14). Draw a transpose
line from the shoulder to the elbow. Be sure there
are no active masks. Alt-drag in the last endpoint,
the one at the elbow. This will bend the arm, but
it will have the effect of bulging the bicep and
stretching the elbow skin. This kind of built-in
skinning algorithm helps you quickly create
natural poses. - When you have finished posing the character, step back to the highest subdivision
level where you created the pose layer. Under Tool → Layers, turn off the pose layer by
clicking the eye icon. The figure will now return to its default pose. If you click the eye
icon again, the figure will return to its pose.
Figure 7.15 shows a figure posed entirely with Transpose.
Figure 7.13 The forearm twist added