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Modern computer animation, often concerning animation of vertebrates, is able to make use of skeletal animation (also known as skinning). This technique is used by constructing 'bones' within a standard polygon mesh model. Each bone is associated with a group of vertices in the polygon mesh; for example, in a model of a human being, the 'thigh' bone would be associated with the vertices making up the polygons in the model's thigh. The bones are joined together with hinges, just like a normal skeleton, constricting possible movement to that required by the animator. Animation is then made much simpler: an animation can be defined by simple movements of the bones, instead of vertex by vertex. Another advantage to skeletal animation is the bones form a hierarchy; if the upper arm bone is moved, all the bones below it (lower arm, hand, fingers) are also moved automatically.
Skeletal animation is commonly used by computer games programmers and in the movie industry.