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.
Rigging Tool
The Rigging Tool is used to create
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 |
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 |
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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
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.
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.
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.
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.