Working with the Bone Plugin Tool

After you set up the hierarchy, select the Bone Plugin Tool in the tools panel. If you don't see this tool on your tools panel, visit the topic how to work with tools.

TIP: It's very useful to use this plugin together with Thumbnail Plugin.

You will see the bone structure on the top of your character:

	Click on a joint and drag the mouse to move the bone.
	Hold ALT, click on a joint and drag the mouse to move a bone and the parent won't follow.
	Hold ALT + SHIFT, click on a joint and drag the mouse to move a bone independently.
	Hold SHIFT, click on a joint and drag the mouse to rotate a bone.
	Hold SHIFT, click on a joint, hold ALT and drag the mouse to rotate a bone independently.
	Work all these combinations and get exactly the pose you want.

Save an Hierarchy:

Type the name of your hierarchy in the text box highlighted above and press ENTER or the button Save .

Delete an Hierarchy

Select an hierarchy on the menu and press the button Delete .

Load an hierarchy Select an saved hierarchy on the menu.

Build Arcs

Select an hierarchy on the menu and press the button Build Arcs.
This will create key frames where there is motion tween, correcting the position of the children relative to their parents.

Example:

Undo and Redo

When you move and rotate the bones using the Bone Plugin Tool, the common Undo/Redo of Flash doesn't work, so you must use the Undo/Redo functions of the Bone Plugin instead of the common ones.

Lock Bone Size

Lock bone size mode will maintain the size of the bones when moving them.

Joint Size

Set the size of the joints:

Auto Key Options

'Auto key mode' will create key frames automatically as you move/rotate bones.
'Only selected bones' will create key frames automatically only for the bones you move/rotate.
'All bones' will create key frames automatically for all the bones of the hierarchy as you move/rotate them.

Build/Remove Arcs Options

'Quick mode' will build arcs faster, but you won't be able to cancel the process in the middle.
'Only selected frames' will build/remove arcs only on selected frames.
'All frames' will build/remove arcs on all frames of the animation.

Move/Rotate Bones Options

'Preview' will refresh the transformation as you move/rotate bones. Prefer to use this option if your machine is fast enough.
'No preview' will refresh the transformation only when you release the mouse button.

Adjust Transformation Points Options

'Full mode' will adjust the anchors automatically every time you release the mouse button. This option is recommended.
'Fast mode' will adjust the anchors when you click on the stage. Use this option if there is a considerable delay when you release the mouse button after moving/rotating bones.

Fix Transformation Points Options

When you use the Fast Mode and accidentally forget to adjust the anchors, they will mess up. In order to fix this, go to a frame where the anchors are OK, press the button Copy, go to the frame where the anchors are wrong and press the button Paste. You can use Paste to All Frames if there is more than one frame wrong.
Undo/Redo couses the same mess if you accidentally forget to adjust the anchors.

You should see one of the following warnings when Fix transformation points is needed: