• Editor
  • Root- What exactly does it do

Hi,

I've been messing around with Spine for a little over a week now, and the root bone continues to confuse me.

Here is what I think it does:
Mostly it doesn't appear to be a bone at all, but sort of a master position for the whole skeleton. Almost like a puppet on a stick, the root can be used to adjust for terrain or positioned so that multiple animations line up.

And if you make a new root bone and then parent new bones to it, is this a static point that the other bones can move around but it is not influenced by? Am I correct?

I guess what I'm also asking is when is it more efficient to stick a root bone in rather than a regular bone. IS it better to avoid roots when you need more flexibility, ie a jumping animation as opposed to a walk.

Related Discussions
...
  • Modifié

There is nothing special about the root bone. It behaves exactly like any other bone, except it has no parent bone. A skeleton can only have one root bone, all other bones are children of it. When a bone is moved, all the children move because children are defined relative to the parent bone. Since all children are under the root, everything moves when the root moves. The root bone is often left at 0,0 as a reference point for positioning the entire skeleton in your game.

There is a separate concept of a "null" bone. This is a zero length bone. Instead of drawing a bone, Spine draws a sort of crosshair icon when the length is zero (or near zero). This bone has no special properties though, it is the same as any other bone. Bone length is only for visual recognition in the editor.

that cleared up a lot! thanks!