Patch Articulation
The Harmony advanced rigging can use an articulation fixing technique called Patch Articulation. This technique is a colour fill patch that is drawn on a third layer and is used to cover the joint lines. It is a simple, yet powerful method.
With this technique, you avoid having to create a correction layer at the end of the animation to fill the gaps in the joints. You do not need to worry about the articulations at all. Once a patch is set, the articulation is fixed for the entire length of the animation.
To make this technique even more efficient, Harmony lets you draw the patch inside the same drawing, but on a separate contained layer. The Line Art and Colour Art layers are not only useful in traditional ink and paint, but also in advanced cut-out breakdown. You can draw the patch in the Colour Art layer and extract it in the Node view. The advantage of doing it this way is that when animating and using the drawing substitution, the patch drawing will change at the same time as the main drawing.
- In the Tools toolbar, select the Transform tool or press Shift + T.
- If you plan to create your patch on an independent layer, do the following. If not, go the next step.
‣ | In the Timeline view, add a new drawing layer by clicking the Add Drawing Layer button or press Ctrl + R (Windows/Linux) or ⌘ + R (Mac OS X). |
- In the Camera view, select the part for which you want to create a patch. For example, if you are fixing the elbow articulation, select the arm or forearm drawing to edit it.
- In the Tools toolbar, select the Select tool or press Alt + S.
- If you drew your lines with pencil lines, it is recommended to convert them to brush lines (fill shapes):
‣ | In the Camera view, select the pencil lines. |
‣ | In the Tools Properties view, click the Convert Brush Strokes to Pencil Lines button. |
‣ | In the Camera view, select the piece's outline and fill. |
‣ | In the Tool Properties view, click the Flatten button to remove the excess colour fill located under the contour stroke. |
- In the Camera view, select the fill zone of the part's drawing.
- In the Camera view, right-click and select Copy.
- In the Camera view, right-click and select Paste.
- In the Tools toolbar, select the Cutter tool.
- In the Camera view, make a selection around the pasted zone to cut everything out but a small overlapping zone to cover the articulation.
1. | Repeat the process for each articulation which requires fixing. |