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matthewb65800833
matthewb65800833
Participant
Jan 15, 2017 10:36 PM UTC
Question

Getting arms to hang by sides

Hi guys. I'm creating a bunch of human puppets. Setting up my source files I have the arms sticking out at 45 degree angles, which I saw in a bunch of the tutorials. The problem is that I don't actually want the arms sticking out in the performance - I want them hanging straight down. I can sort of do this by holding down the dragger handles down for the entire performance, one hand at a time. But this is annoying and also results in some awkward looking arms. Is there a way to set up a "rest position" with the arms by the sides, or is the rest position always the way the Illustrator document is set up?

Also, is there a way to keep the arms from stretching in length? I don't want them to elongate like Mr. Fantastic - I want them to follow the mouse but stop at full arm extension. Thanks!

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      5 replies

      oksamurai
      oksamurai
      Legend
      Jan 17, 2017 6:10 PM UTC

      Under Dragger on the right you can change the arms to "Hold in Place" instead of the default "Return to Rest" for them to stick. You could drag them both down, record one second, then extend the takes by dragging the right side of the bars in the timeline.

      No way to limit dragger bending (yet).

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      matthewb65800833
      matthewb65800833Author
      Participant
      Jan 17, 2017 6:14 PM UTC

      Thanks a lot!

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      KJerryK
      KJerryK
      Legend
      Jan 17, 2017 2:08 PM UTC

      I don't know of any way to keep the arms from stretching when using the dragger to move them. And changing the arm position to straight down generally causes the body to distort when dragging the arms. There are, however, alternative ways to move the arms (or legs) to prevent distortion. I sometimes make the arms a separate puppet and position it in the scene with a body puppet. Then I can use the transform controls on the arms to rotate or scale. You could also use arm cycles as another way to move arms without distorting.

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