Basic Editing
Create, Rename, and Organize Bones
Inspect the sample's bone chains, then create, select, name, adjust, and delete bones safely.
After this article
Create bones with clear parent–child relationships and verify them in both the hierarchy and canvas.
Understand an existing bone chain
A parent bone affects its children according to inheritance settings. Slots belong to bones, and image attachments belong to slots, so a structural mistake can affect both motion and images.
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Expand from root
Expand root, pelvis, torso, and the limb chains in the right Bones section. Select a bone and watch the canvas and inspector synchronize.
Expected resultYou can name the selected bone's parent, children, and corresponding body part.
Understand the PSD-generated hierarchy before creating bones manually. - 2
Inspect inheritance and locking
Review parent, length, position, rotation, scale, shear, inheritance, visibility, and lock. Lock prevents accidental edits; it does not hide the bone.
Expected resultYou know where to make a bone read-only and whether rotation, scale, and reflection are inherited.
Drag to create a new bone
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Select a parent and enter creation mode
In Skeleton mode, select the intended parent and press N or click New Bone near the bottom-right of the canvas. With no bones you can create root directly; otherwise choose the parent first.
Expected resultThe New Bone control is active and the canvas is ready for creation.
N toggles bone creation. Click a bone to choose its parent. - 2
Drag from the joint to the tip
Hold the left mouse button at the joint start, drag to the bone tip, and release. A drag threshold prevents accidental tiny bones from simple clicks.
Expected resultA new bone appears under the selected parent with the expected length and direction.
A finished bone should appear in this hierarchy with the correct parent. This example shows the PSD-generated structure; manual creation uses one drag, not two clicks. - 3
Exit and verify
Press Escape or right-click to exit. Move the parent slightly with Pose, check that the new bone follows, then press Ctrl + Z to undo the test.
Expected resultThe parent–child motion is correct and no test deformation remains.
Rename, adjust length, and change parents
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Use readable names
Double-click a bone name in the hierarchy and enter a body-part name. Avoid maintaining a large character using automatic names such as bone_17 alone.
Expected resultThe canvas selection and dope sheet tracks are easier to identify.
Double-click the intended name to rename it. This image identifies the target bone rather than showing an invented rename dialog. - 2
Use the inspector for precise adjustments
Select a bone and edit its length, position, rotation, or parent. Dragging is useful for posing; numeric fields are better for exact corrections.
Expected resultOnly the target and permitted descendants change, without unintended edits elsewhere.
Use the inspector to make precise edits and verify inheritance.