Auto Muscle Node

The Auto-Muscle node is used to simulate muscle movement. This will allow your characters to flex their muscles when they lift something or to create muscle tone when they move. When the Auto-Muscle node is connected to a Bone Deformer that is rotated, the drawing is automatically inflated to simulate muscle movement in the limb.

NOTE Connect the Auto-Muscle node above the drawing you want to add a muscle to and after the Bone chain.

Properties

Parameter Description
Enable/Disable

Allows you to enable or disable the node. When disabled, a node has no visible effect on the rendered image, nor on the preview in the Camera, Perspective, Side and Top views.

Colour Swatch

Sets the colour of the layer in the Timeline view and of the node in the Node view.

Name Use this field to rename the node.
Muscle Left

This option is enabled by default. When enabled, the left side of the Bone Deformer will inflate as the articulation is rotated toward the direction of the Bone Deformer. Disable this option if you do not want the left side of the bone to inflate.

Left Start

The default value of the starting position of the left muscle is set to -2. This means it will start at the deformer situated two steps before the position where the Auto-Muscle is connected. You can change the starting point by typing the number corresponding to the deformer node.

Left Span This parameter controls the length (muscle length) over which the effect node will be applied to the left side of the deformer. By default the setting is 1, representing the length of the deformer to which it is applied.
Left Amplitude

This parameter controls the physical size of the left muscle. Increase the value to make the muscle bigger, decrease the value to make it smaller.

Muscle Right

This option is enabled by default. When enabled, the right side of the Bone Deformer will inflate as the articulation is rotated toward the direction of the Bone Deformer. Disable this option if you don't want the right side of the bone to inflate.

Same as Left

This option is enabled by default, allowing each side of the Bone Deformer to inflate to follow the rotation of the articulation. Enable this option to synchronize the right muscle with the left so both muscles inflate when the articulation is rotated to the left.

Right Start

The default value of the starting position of the right muscle is set to -2. This means it will start at the deformer situated two steps before where the Auto-Muscle is connected, in this case, Bone. You can change the starting point by typing the number corresponding to the deformer node.

Right Span This parameter controls the length (muscle length) over which the effect node will be applied to the right side of the deformer. By default the setting is 1, representing the length of the deformer to which it is applied.
Right Amplitude This parameter controls the physical size of the right muscle. Increase the value to make the muscle bigger, decrease the value to make it smaller.