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Known Participant
November 2, 2020
Answered

Controlling puppet head scale with a control?

  • November 2, 2020
  • 1 reply
  • 659 views

Hi there - 

Is there a way to control just the head scale in a puppet so that I create a controller to allow me to manually make the head bigger/smaller WITHOUT using camera input on the Face behavior?  I'd like to link head scaling to a pitch wheel on a MIDI keyboard and I can't figure out how to do that.  I know I could scale the entire puppet this way with the Transform behavior, but I really just want to scale the head to emphasize certain parts of the dialog. 

 

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer CoSA_DaveS

Another option: apply an additional Transform behavior to just the Head group, then drag its Scale slider into the Controls Panel (in Layout mode) and assign it to your MIDI control by touching the physical knob while the slider is still selected in the Controls Panel.

1 reply

keiko.yamada
Community Manager
Community Manager
November 2, 2020

Hi,

I will probably do this.
1) Duplicate "Head" group in Puppet panel.
2) Rename duplicated group. e.g. "Head_big"
3) In Rig workspace, select "Head_big" in Puppet panel, set Layer -> X/Y scale and position in Properties panel.
4) Create a new Swap set in Triggers panel.
5) Add both "Head" and "Head_big" to the same swap set created at step 4.
6) Set "Head" to Default.
7) Assign key to "Head_big". e.g. H

 

If you could modify the source file (add a new big head layer in the source file) instead of duplicating in CH, it would be better in the long run. If so, you need only step 4-7.

 

Hope this helps.

CoSA_DaveS
Adobe Employee
CoSA_DaveSCorrect answer
Adobe Employee
November 3, 2020

Another option: apply an additional Transform behavior to just the Head group, then drag its Scale slider into the Controls Panel (in Layout mode) and assign it to your MIDI control by touching the physical knob while the slider is still selected in the Controls Panel.

Known Participant
November 6, 2020

This is exactly what I wanted to achieve, thanks!  Now the only minor issue I've encountered is that I can map the head's Scale slider to the modulation wheel on my cheap MIDI keyboard with no problem but it cannot be mapped to the Pitch wheel, which is preferable b/c it snaps back to center when you let go of it.  I'm guessing that maybe CA just can't detect the Pitch wheel being moved.  Maybe the pitch wheel isn't handled the same way as the other slider controls on the MIDI keyboard? 

 

FYI - I got the cheapest MIDI keyboard I could find on Amazon (midiplus AKM320 32 key MIDI Keyboard Controller for $40) just to try it out for triggering things in CA and it's working great for that. Totally plug and play (at least on the Mac it was).  Much better than using the computer keyboard which requires focus to be on CA to register [mostly this is an issue for live streaming when CA might not have focus].