idea #136: more useful options in CTRL-N bone roll options - for knees, elbows esp.

howdy,

so right now, in most rigging tutorials, CTRL-N is held up as the default, all-powerful solution to making a great rig.

but all it does is align the orientation of bones axes to the WORLD'S AXES. but this is really only useful when your character is built in T-POSE (and for the sake of deformations later, this is NOT ideal). if the character is built with a "loose" position with arms at 45degs and bent at the elbows, orienting bone roll to world axes would cause problems.

in 2.46, we have the wonderful addition of orienting bone roll to 3D CURSOR! and basically, this will allow you to set a proper bone axis no matter the situation. so GREAT TOOL!

BUT, some tasks get done OVER AND OVER again and it would be nice to have it automated.

for ELBOWS and KNEES, one of the axes should aim down the bone (twist axis) and another should lie on the PLANE described by these three joints = (wrist, elbow, shoulder) or (ankle, knee, hip).

what this does is aligns the remaining axis to be oriented so that when the elbow or knee is bent, it bends IN ON ITSELF, instead of splaying out at an angle which is wrong. your forearm should fold into the bicep in a straight line like a pocket knife.

perhaps do it so that when CTRL-N is invoked when you have 3 joints selected, it applies "ELBOW/KNEE ORIENTATION" onto the last joint selected?

also, there should be a "FLIP" function too so that if X-AXIS is facing right, it can face left.... this is necessary if you have automated or expression driven rigs and you want the left side and right side to be proper mirror images and use the same values....

for an even more involved (!!! what?!) description of the issues involved, please see enclosed link to blender artists.

http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=117615

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