Deformation Toolbar

The Deformation toolbar contains the various tools and options used to create the Deformation effect. This toolbar is displayed in the default interface.

Deformation Toolbar

Rigging Tool

The Rigging Tool is used to create either a Bone or Curve deformation chain and automatically create a Deformation group on a selected element. Using this tool considerably speeds up the rigging process by automatically creating all the necessary links and modules for your deformation chain.

Rigging Tool Properties

In the Rigging Tool Properties dialog box, you can customize not only the behaviour of the tool but also the settings of the deformers that you will create:

Mode
Rig Tool Options
Operations

Mode

Name Button Description
Automatic Mode Sets the Rigging tool to automatically create a Bone or Curve deformer, corresponding to the movement of the cursor in the Camera view.
Bone Mode Sets the Rigging tool to create Bone deformers.
Curve Mode Sets the Rigging tool to create Curve deformers.

Show All Manipulators

Lets you immediately see the resting position in red (Setup) and the animated position in green—see Show All Manipulators.
Show All Zones of Influence Lets you visualize the area within which the art will be influenced by the deformation effect—see Show All Zones of Influence.

Rig Tool Options

Parameter Description
Articulation, Bone, Curve The Zone of Influence setting used as the default when creating an articulation, bone deformer or curve deformer using the Rigging tool.

Zero Influence: The Zone of Influence does not exist. No deformation will happen.

Infinite Influence: This is the default option and is the most commonly used. The Zone of Influence has no boundary and covers the whole element to which the deformer is linked and its children, excluding areas that are already part of another elliptic or shaped Zone of Influence. The Infinite Influence zone will extend from the centre of your skeleton to infinity, working perpendicular to the skeleton.
Elliptic Influence: The Zone of Influence boundary is defined by an elliptical shape; its size can be customized using the Bone, Articulation or Curve module properties or by using the Transform tool. The Elliptic Influence will most likely be used on a bitmap picture you want to deform.
Shaped Influence: The Zone of Influence boundary is defined by a shape which you can customize using the Transform tool. The Shaped Influence will most likely be used on a bitmap picture you want to deform.
Influence Radius This value is the size of the influence zone. The default value is 2.
Bone Ratio This value sets the size of the articulation that will be created relative to the size of the bone that precedes it.

Operations

Name Button Description

Convert Elliptic Zone of Influence to Shape

After you have created a deformation chain using Elliptic as the Zone of Influence type, you can select your deformer and click on this button to convert it to a Shape type. Control points will appear around the shape making it easy to customize.
Copy Resting Position to Current Copies the resting position of the deformation skeleton to the current frame.

Setup Mode

When you are in Setup mode, you can use the Transform tool to adjust the position, resize and tweak the Bone, Articulation and Curve deformers which you created using the Rigging tool. When in Setup mode, the manipulators appear in red in the Camera view—see Deformation Basicsand Setting Up the Resting Position.

Show All Manipulators

The Show All Manipulators button lets you visualize the resting position in red (Setup mode) and the active position in green at the same time—see Deformation Basics to learn how to make the manipulators visible in the Camera view.

Show All Zones of Influence

The Zones of Influence button displays all zones of influence in the deformers in your project. Note that the deformer’s controls must be visible in order for its Zone of Influence to show. Zones will not be displayed when a deformer’s Zone of Influence is set to Infinite or Zero—see Deformation Basicsand Zones of Influence.

Show Simplified Manipulators

The Show Simplified Manipulators button hides some of the more advanced control handles that are visible in the Camera view. This can prove useful when animating, as it prevents you from inadvertently moving the handles—see Deformation Basics to learn how to make the manipulators visible in the Camera view.

Show Selected Manipulators and Hide All Others

The Show Selected Manipulators and Hide All Others button hides all manipulators displayed in the Camera view. Only the manipulators of the selected deformation module are displayed—see Deformation Basics to learn how to make the manipulators visible in the Camera view.

Insert Deformation Above

The Insert Deformation Above button adds a Deformation group above the selected element. This contains all the basic Deformation modules you need to begin the manual construction of a deformation chain, namely the Deformation-Root, Deformation-Composite and Deformation-Switch modules. If your preferences are set to create pose deformation, the subgroups linking to each of the drawings of the selected elements will also be created. After which you can use the various Deformation Effect modules from the Module Library and start rigging.

If you are planning to rig your element using the Rigging tool, you will not need to use this option, as the Rigging tool will do it automatically.

Insert Deformation Under

The Insert Deformation Under button adds a Deformation group under the selected element. This contains all the basic Deformation modules you need to begin the manual construction of a deformation chain, namely the Deformation-Root, Deformation-Composite and Deformation-Switch modules. If your preferences are set to create pose deformation, the subgroups linking to each of the drawings of the selected elements will also be created. After which you can use the various Deformation Effect modules from the Module Library and start rigging.

If you are planning to rig your element using the Rigging tool, you will not need to use this option, as the Rigging tool will do it automatically.

Create Kinematic Output

The Create Kinetic Output button adds an output to your deformation which lets you hook a separate element that you want to be linked to the deformation chain but not be part of the deformation. For example, a hand connected to a wrist or when assembling different parts of a character without having the different deformation chains influencing one another. These elements will follow movement of the chain just like a regular cut-out character hierarchy piece without being influenced by the deformation of the arm—see Assembling the Parts to learn more about the use of Kinematic Output.

Copy Resting Position to Current

The Copy Resting Position to Current button displays the resting position, the original setup of your skeleton before undergoing any deformation. Once you have created a deformation chain, you can use the Setup Mode button to adjust the position and appearance of the rig to fit the element. When the skeleton is in place, you can use the Copy Resting Position to Current button to reset the current frame position to the resting position which you just modified leaving everything in place when you exit the Setup mode. If you do not use this option, the rig will undergo a deformation and revert to the position it was before you set up your skeleton, in relation to the new resting position.

Convert Ellipse

Once you have created a deformation chain using Elliptic as the Zone of Influence type, you can select your deformer and click the Convert Ellipse button to convert it to a Shape type. Control points will appear around the shape making it easy to customize. This option is also available in the tool properties of the Rigging tool—see Zones of Influence topic to learn more about using the zones of influence.

You can also use the Convert Elliptic Deformation ROI to Shape function to convert your Elliptic zone of influence to a shape. From the top menu, select Animation > Deformation > Convert Elliptic Deformation ROI to Shape. This function will create a much smaller initial zone of influence than if you were to convert it directly to a shape.

Convert to New Drawing and Add Pose

After creating your deformation rig, you may want to convert a pose and the deformer in the current frame to a drawing with a duplicate deformer that you can animate. This can be useful when you want to add a pose to a turnaround deformation rig you have already spent time creating and manipulating.

The Convert to New Drawing and Add Pose option will take the pose/drawing and the deformer of the selected frame and convert it to a new pose/drawing with the corresponding deformer. This option works with the default deformation preference settings. Go to Edit > Preferences (Windows) or Stage > Preferences (Mac OS X) and select the Deformation tab. Make sure that Automatically Create New Deformer Structure for Each Pose/Drawing is selected.

Keep the naming convention of the drawing consistent between all views or the drawing link will be broken.