Animating Bone and Game Bone Deformers
You can add keyframes to deformers reposition their deformation controls to create animated sequences.
- In the Tools toolbar, select the Transform tool or press Shift + T.
- In the Tools toolbar, enable the Animate mode. This allows the Transform tool to affect the position and size of a layer at the current keyframe only, whereas it would otherwise affect the layer's position and size throughout the whole scene.
- In the Timeline view, collapse your character using the Expand/Collapse arrow.
- Select the first frame of the scene.
- To ensure your model doesn't disappear after 1 frame, extend its exposure by right-clicking on the first frame in the Timeline and selecting Extend Exposure or by pressing F5. In the Set Exposure dialog, type in the amount of frames in your scene and confirm. This will make your model exposed (visible) throughout your whole scene,
- Now, we will make your character's first pose. First, make sure there is a keyframe on the first frame of every layer of the model. This ensures that when you make the second pose later, your first pose will not be affected. To do this do one of the following:
- In the Timeline toolbar, click the Add Keyframe button.
- Right-click and select Add Keyframe.
- Press F6.
A keyframe is added on the current frame.
- Do one of the following:
- In the Timeline view, select any part of the deformation chain you want to display.
- In the Camera, Timeline view, select one of the drawing elements linked to the deformation chain you want to display.
- In the Deformation toolbar, click the Show Selected Deformation Chain and Hide All Others button.
The selected deformation controls appear in the Camera view and all the others are hidden.
- In the Camera view, do the following:
- Rotate the first bone to rotate the limb.
- Rotate the subsequent bones to bend the limb.
- Use the root control to reposition (offset) the entire chain.
- Use the control points to reposition the articulations. This will elongate, shorten, or change the direction of the bone and offset the subsequent children.
- In the Timeline view, go the frame on which you want to set the next key pose.
- Add a keyframe on the current frame by doing one of the following:
- In the Timeline toolbar, click the Add Keyframe button.
- Right-click and select Add Keyframe.
- Press F6.
- Repeat the previous steps to animate your character.