Gray Bones and Body Parts


https://forum.reallusion.com/Topic458478.aspx
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By mansion7 - 4 Years Ago
Hello, 
I am trying to create my own character.  I've got it set up.  I used the "Ted" character and simply replaced the sprites (although I do have the pipeline edition)

However, some of my bones are now gray, and I can't figure out how to make them work again.  I have tried "connect" and it will not connect the bones - possibly because they're already connected?  
I tried to find the answers online and in this forum and in the CA4 manual, and found some references to bones being "active" but if you can see the image I'm including, all of them appear to be active and do nothing when I click the button.  I'm stumped!
By vepop - 4 Years Ago
Watch these tuts to grasp the idea:-
https://vimeo.com/372782250 - part 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdfeyRjjBwE - part 2

By mansion7 - 4 Years Ago
Thank you.  The videos illustrated concepts I was aware of and have used to make a bunch of other characters.

Do you know if there is a way to reactivate bones that have turned gray or reconnect them somehow?

Thank you again!
By vepop - 4 Years Ago
If you don't mind sharing your project file with me, I will see if I can help in any way.
Thanks.


By mansion7 - 4 Years Ago
Thank you!  I would be most grateful for any assistance.  

I managed to get the character in the example above to work, simply by starting over from scratch (I have no idea what I did different)

However I'm encountering it in this character as well.   All I did is adjust the length of her bones, and then it turned some of them gray and they don't work anymore.

In addition, this happens all the time even when I edit unrelated bones.  For example, I tried to adjust the length of the neck bones, and it turned her hip bones gray.   I just don't know what I am doing wrong and I don't know how to make the bones work again.   I don't know if you'll be able to see this, but here is a video - as you may see, all I do it move a bone by even a small amount and that causes other bones to go gray and not work.  Further, there seems no way to "activate" them because in the layers tab the activate button cannot be toggled or untoggled.

Thank you so much!  I really appreciate any assistance you can provide. 
By vepop - 4 Years Ago
I didn't see any gray bones in your character.
Here are tuts for you to grasp the basic idea:-
Part 1:- https://vimeo.com/372782250
Part 2:-  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdfeyRjjBwE
By mansion7 - 4 Years Ago
thanks for the videos, I already watched them and in this case they aren't applicable to the situation.  I appreciate you having a look.

 You can see them turn gray in the video I linked, and turn back when I click "undo".  I can't understand why this is, as I do have the latest CA4 update installed.

Thank you again for taking a look.
By vepop - 4 Years Ago
The reason for bones turning gray is because they are not connected correctly at the joints.
This is usually the case.
By mansion7 - 4 Years Ago
Thank you.
By vepop - 4 Years Ago
I have checked the bone structure in your  'character.zip'.
Like I have said before, the bone placement is not properly done.
The 'Head' bone for instance is not placed correctly.

By renagoff - 2 Years Ago
When I made a basic spine (or worm) character the bones grayed out when I created the character. I imported it into CTA4 with a hidden layer on the .psd file. So I got rid of the invisible layer in photoshop, and the bones were finally active yellow. I hope this helps someone.