BansheeEngine/Documentation/Manuals/Native/User/bones.md

Bones {#bones}

The @ref bs::CBone "Bone" component allows you to expose a bone in a skeleton used for skeletal animation, for external use. A SceneObject with such a component attached will mimic the transformations the bone undergoes during animation. This allows you to:

• Attach other scene objects as children of the bone, ensuring you can animate other objects depending on the skeletal animation (e.g. a character holding a sword would have the sword attached to the hand bone, assuming the sword is modeled as a separate object)
• Manipulate the bone's transform manually, ensuring you can control the animation manually (e.g. for purposes of inverse kinematics)

A bone component must always be added on a scene object that is a child of a scene object containing the CAnimation component.

HSceneObject animRenderableSO = SceneObject::create("Animated 3D object");
// Set up renderable...
animation = animRenderableSO->addComponent<CAnimation>();

HSceneObject boneSO = SceneObject::create("Bone");
boneSO->setParent(animRenderableSO);

HBone bone = boneSO->addComponent<CBone>();

After the component has been added to the scene you must specify the name of the bone it will mimic. You can find information about all bones in a specific Mesh by calling @ref bs::Mesh::getSkeleton() "Mesh::getSkeleton()". This will return a @ref bs::Skeleton "Skeleton" object which allows you to enumerate all bones.

HMesh mesh = ...;

// Assuming our skeleton has a bone named "Hand"
bone->setName("Hand");

// Or query the skeleton information and search for the bone you need
// SPtr<Skeleton> skeleton = mesh->getSkeleton();
// ...

After it is set-up, you can now attach scene objects as children of the bone, and ensure they animate with animation playback.

// Set up a sword to animate with the hand bone
HSceneObject swordSO = SceneObject::create("Sword");
// Set up renderable...

swordSO->setParent(boneSO);

Or you can manually manipulate the transform of the bone.

// Rotate the bone manually
boneSO->setRotation(Quaternion(Degree(0), Degree(90), Degree(0)));