Terminology – understanding the anatomy of a bone

We need to start somewhere, so let’s get ourselves acquainted with the basics of bones and rigs!

Figure 1.2 shows a single bone, which is the basic building block of any rig:

Figure 1.2 – A single bone

Bones on their own are remarkably simple; they consist of a Head, a Tail, and a Body. Heads and tails are pretty confusing, as they are the opposite of what you might think. The head is at the bottom and the tail is at the top. If you struggle to remember, just think about how for most animals with a tail, it’s smaller than their head.

Bones typically work in a hierarchy, going head to tail to form chains, with the first bone being at the top of the hierarchy. All bones after the first bone within the same chain will be shown under it in the Outliner window. When multiple chains are part of a single rig, there will be a selected master bone, a root bone; typically, this has...