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Participant
July 14, 2022
Question

Puppet Arms Stiff - Barely move when dragged

  • July 14, 2022
  • 1 reply
  • 140 views

Hello!

 

About a year and a half ago I created a Puppet in Character Animator 2021, and it was working great.

Today for the first time in a long time I've loaded it up and tried to replay some of the pre-recorded animations, but the arm movements are really stiff and barely moving, either when I drag them with the mouse or with the pre-recorded wave animations, which previously worked great.

 

I'm not sure where to start without tearing the puppet apart and hoping someone can direct me to some feature that potentially was introduced in the last year and a half that may account for this behaviour..

 

Here is how the arms are rigged, for refrence:

 

 

Not having kept up with the version updates over the last year or so, have there been new features added that may account for why the arms now behave this way?  Formerly properly waving, now they move maybe 5-10 pixels tops when dragged.

 

 

 

Thanks in advance for any leads!

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1 reply

dijikulAuthor
Participant
July 14, 2022

The arms appear to move if I uncheck the section between the elbow and the shoulder as "fixed", but the arms are no longer bending for some reason, and part of why those upper-arm sections were set as fixed to begin with, giving a sort of natural elbow-wave when dragging the hands...

 

I'll keep playing, but it seems the behaviour of arm IK has changed.  Are there release notes detailing those changes, somewhere?

dijikulAuthor
Participant
July 14, 2022

I think I fixed it. 

 

Seems the Wrist points are what's causing thigns to misbehave.

 

Removing them returned behaviour to what I remember.

 

 

TheOriginalGC
Community Expert
Community Expert
July 15, 2022

Fixed is exactly as the word describes it. It's as if you're pushing a straightpin through the puppet art to pin it to the background. Fixed is useful when you want to do things like "fix" a puppet's feet to the ground.