Puppet panel in Character Animator is where you can see the puppet groups, layers, mesh, and auto handles. It is also in this panel that you can rig your puppet. Read this document to understand the different tasks you can perform using the Puppet panel and navigating around it.
To open a puppet, do one of the following:
The puppet opens in the Puppet panel. The panel shows the layer structure on the left (sidebar), and the appearance of the layers and any associated handles on the right. Along the bottom of the panel are commands and tools for working with layers and handles. The Properties panel also has settings for the selected layer.
You can open a puppet to see its entire layer hierarchy, or a group within a puppet to focus on a specific part of a puppet in isolation.
Double-click the puppet in the Project panel or Timeline panel.
The application switches to the Rig workspace and opens the selected puppet in the Puppet panel.
To open a specific group in a puppet:
Only those group’s layers and rigging are visible in the panel.
To switch back to viewing the previous puppet view:
This button lets you easily switch to the parent puppet or group you were viewing when you double-clicked the group. Unlike choosing File > Close to close a group, the Back button still leaves the group in the list of opened puppets in the Puppet panel’s tab menu.
If you double-click a group of a puppet in the Puppet panel, you can use the back button ( , Command/Ctrl+[) next to the group’s name at the top of the panel to switch back to the parent puppet or group you were viewing when you double-clicked the group. Unlike pressing Command/Ctrl+W (for File > Close) to close a group, the back button still leaves the group in the list of opened puppets in the Puppet panel’s tab.
Do either of the following:
Do any of the following:
Do any of the following:
Do either of the following:
Visualize the deformable mesh for the selected layer by using the buttons near the lower-left corner of the Puppet panel, as follows:
The mesh appears as a yellow overlay of triangles above the independent region of the puppet that the selected layer contributes to. The mesh outline is a solid line around the contour of the mesh. The origin locations for child layers set to use Attach To = Auto appear as green dots.
The density and shape of the mesh can be controlled via the Layer Mesh settings in the Properties panel.
These mesh visualizations are not included when exporting the scene.
Transparent areas of the puppet can be viewed in different ways to provide contrast with puppet artwork, as follows:
The button cycles between black, white, and dark and light transparency grids (checkerboards).
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