Making perfecly round joints

[mystd]

I had problems doing that with just the grid like I've seen in all the tutorials. So I made a vector layer used draw shape tool to make perfect a circle, then made the fill invisible and put the strokes alpha on to about 50%. I just moved the points of the limbs around that circle this worked nice except I still had problems placing the bones exactly in the middle but I noticed that when I select the circle with the transform tool that it shows me the exact mid point. Problem was that the cross vanished when I selected another tool. So I made a screenshot with the mid point showing imported it and put the opacity to 50% then placed the bitmap circle exactly over the vector one. That way I was able to place the bones perfectly in the middle.

Here are some pics:
http://i.imgur.com/mkuLIL6.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/0sHdNfr.jpg

I didn't think of it before but next time I'll just make this:
http://i.imgur.com/nF4f08h.jpg

Just circle where I added the cross with the point tool.

[slowtiger]

I just use the grid. I take care not to move any of the layers. Draw the circle with the grid on, draw the bone with the grid on.

This is especially helpful for placing bones in wheels, where any offset would be immediately visible in movement. But in most other cases it's not that important to be this exact, I take care to create my characters in a fashion which allows for for many mistakes until it becomes visible.

[mystd]

My problem is I like to draw freehand and then adjust everything. So nothing really fits the grid, using that circle with cross is a better option for me.

[slowtiger]

Depending on your visual style, a circle and a bone placed exact in its center might not be the best solution. See your own elbow or knee: the joint is at one edge, not in the center of arm or leg.

[Greenlaw]

Finding the exact middle of a circle is easy: make a copy of the circle and then scale it down while holding Alt. This will scale the circle down to a 'dot' at the exact center of the original circle.

At my workplace, this is how we create a 'joints overlay' for artwork painted in Photoshop.