Bone Mapping
In the Bone Mapping Sub-Mode, you can set how each bone in your character matches the bones of the MOVINMan reference model. It’s important to create clear connections between bones so that your character’s movements are transferred accurately during retargeting.
Setting Up Chains
Your character’s bones are grouped into several Chains, which represent connected parts of the body. Each chain works as a unit that passes movement data during retargeting.
From the Chain List, you can select a chain and add or remove bones as needed. All bones in the same chain must be directly connected in the hierarchy (meaning they should have a Ancestor–Descendant relationship.) Only properly connected bones will be recognized by MOVIN Studio as a valid chain.
MOVIN Studio supports the following chain types:
Chain List
Head Chain
Spine Chain
Left Leg Chain
Right Leg Chain
Left Arm Chain
Right Arm Chain
Left Thumb Chain
Left Index Finger Chain
Left Middle Finger Chain
Left Ring Finger Chain
Left Pinky Finger Chain
Right Thumb Chain
Right Index Finger Chain
Right Middle Finger Chain
Right Ring Finger Chain
Right Pinky Finger Chain
You can assign bones for each chain as shown below, but this list is not a fixed rule—it may vary depending on the character. In general, the Head Chain consists of head-related joints such as Head and Neck, while chains like Spine, Leg, Arm, and Hand should be constructed by following the joint hierarchy from the character’s Root (body center) to the corresponding end effector.
Below is an example of a typical chain configuration based on common character rigs, which you can use as a reference when setting up Bone Mapping for the first time. If your character doesn’t have Toe or Finger bones, you can simply leave them out or adjust the chain to match your character’s structure.
Head Chain
Head, Neck
Spine Chain
Hips, Spine, Spine1, Spine2
Left/Right Leg Chain
UpLeg, Leg, Foot, Toe
Left/Right Arm Chain
Shoulder, Arm, ForeArm, Hand
Left/Right Hand chain
Thumb1,2,3
Setting Up Bone Flags
Each bone can have a Bone Flag that tells MOVIN Studio what role that bone plays in retargeting. Setting these flags helps the system understand how to calculate and apply motion correctly.
IKStartBone : Set for the upper arm or thigh bone.
IKEndBone : Set for the hand or ankle bone.
Shoulder : Set for the clavicle (shoulder) bone.
Toe : Set for the toe bone.
ThumbStart : Set for the first bone of the thumb chain (metacarpal).
Mapping Configuration
In the Rotational Mapping Panel, you can check and adjust how each bone in your chain rotates relative to the Target Bone on MOVINMan. To change the mapping, simply drag and drop the target bones to the desired positions.
If a target bone is placed between two source bones (A and B), its rotation is automatically blended between them. For example, if the target bone is located one-third of the way from A to B, its rotation will be calculated as a 1:3 mix of A and B’s rotations.
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