Bones display differently...?

[Hauksbee01]

In this screen cap., bones display in two different ways: thin lines and thick lines. What's the difference and what are they telling me?
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[synthsin75]

The selected layer is bound to that bone.

[Hauksbee01]

The selected layer is bound to that bone.

Thanks, synthsin75. Is there a limit to how many objects can be bound to one bone? I'm trying to bind a head, torso and arm to one bone to control everything above the belt. Head and torso are bound, but the arm is resisting me.

[synthsin75]

No limit. Make sure the problem layer is actually in the bone layer (disappears when the bone layer is collapsed).

[Greenlaw]

If you're placing layers in groups, be aware that if you bind a group directly to a bone, you can't bind the child layers within that group. If you need to assign the child layers to bones, you'll need to unbind the group from it's bone first before ASP will allow you to do that.

Also, if you're using the Bind Layer tool, you can only use a single bone per layer. That's a valid rigging approach but if you wish to deform the bitmap, you'll probably want to use Flexi-Binding instead. (That's pretty much all I use at work when rigging painted bitmap characters.)

BTW, if you decide to use multiple bones per layer, I've had some great success using the Smooth Joint feature, even with organic textures and patterns. Well, this really depends on the shape of the texture and the type of pattern, so you just have to try it to see if it works for you. Keep in mind that the on-screen deformation with Smooth Joint will look 'chunky' but the final rendered result should look pretty smooth, so don't get too concerned when you see that.