How to add bones to multiple skins?

James1990

I have a hero. He has several skins.
In one skin the hero has a sword in his hand.
In the other two, the hero has a whip.

The sword is controlled by one bone.
The whip is controlled by 30 bones. The whip contains the grid, calculation of weights, etc.

I added 30 bones to the whip hero skin. But I can't add these bones to another skin. I wouldn't want to create and copy 30 bones for each skin with a whip.

I may not add the whip bones to the skin. The bones in the skin with the sword will not affect it in any way, but it’s somehow not right to have 30 extra bones.

What can be done?
How to add bones to multiple skins?

Spinebot

To add bones to multiple skins in Spine, you can use the concept of skin bones. Skin bones allow you to add bones to one or more skins so that the bones are only active when the corresponding skin is active. Here’s how you can manage this:

Add Bones to Skins: When you create a new bone, it is automatically added to the currently selected skin. If you want to add existing bones to a skin, you can do so by selecting the bone and then adding it to the desired skin.
Use Skin Constraints: You can use skin constraints to manage the visibility and activity of bones based on the active skin. This way, you can have the whip bones only active when the whip skin is active and the sword bone when the sword skin is active.
Linked Meshes: If your whip and sword share similar structures, you can use linked meshes to ensure that any changes made to the bones or weights in one skin are reflected in the other skins.

Here’s a step-by-step guide:

Create Bones for the Whip:
- Create the 30 bones for the whip in one of the skins.
- Ensure these bones are added to the skin where the whip is used.
Add Bones to Other Skins:
- Select the bones you created for the whip.
- Add these bones to the other skins where the whip is used. You can do this by selecting the skin in the skins view and then adding the bones to it.
Manage Bone Visibility:
- Use the Hide viewport skin bones option to hide bones that are not active in the current skin. This will help keep your workspace clean and manageable.
Use Skin Constraints:
- Apply skin constraints to ensure that the bones are only active when the corresponding skin is active. This can be done by setting up transform constraints for each skin.

Here are some useful links from the Spine User Guide that can help you with this process:

By following these steps, you can efficiently manage multiple skins with different sets of bones without duplicating the bones for each skin.

Nate

I added 30 bones to the whip hero skin. But I can't add these bones to another skin.

Why? Select a skin, click Add, click the bones. Or make the skin active, select the bones, click Skin > Add.

James1990

Nate Bones have already been added to the first skin with a whip.
When switching to the second skin with a whip, the bones disappear.

When switching to first skin with a whip, I see bones.
But I can't add them to any other skin. They have already been added to the first skin and the button - add to skin is inactive.

Misaki

James1990

When switching to the second skin with a whip, the bones disappear.

Sorry for the confusion. You can change the display options in the tree view to show bones in other skins. Uncheck the Hide skin bones and constraints option.

James1990

Misaki Thank you. That helped.
It's very hard to notice that little icon in the corner.

Nate

Ah, yeah if the bones disappear you can't use "make the skin active, select the bones, click Skin > Add" unless you turn on the display option Misaki mentioned. However you can still use "select a skin, click Add, click the bones".

You mentioned you see an "Add to skin" button which means you aren't using 4.2. The UI for adding/removing to/from skins is slightly improved in 4.2.