How to prevent limb distortion when dragging

[Mgiordanovel]

I would like my layers to remain their original but simply have joints (bending points) that don't stretch or manipulate the layer's properties. Thank you in advance.

[alank99101739]

I don't think its possible. I agree it would be nice though - a "stretch strength" or something. Still want elbows etc to flex - but not have arm stretch (get longer).

There is an interesting hack however (so it might get "fixed" without notice). When you start with a puppet, you get a "Dragger" behavior at the top level. It gets control over all the draggers under it you add during rigging. If you put a new Dragger behavior on a child layer somewhere, all the draggers under it get associated with that behavior instance instead  (not the root one). Nothing magic so far.  (Note, if you expand the "Dragger" in the properties, it tells you how many draggers exist in the tree of layers under it that the Dragger behavior controls.)

HOWEVER! If you put a second dragger behavior on the puppet root, so there are two Draggers at the same level in the tree, both get control over all draggers beneath. What seems to happen then is the actual drag coordinate is based on the average (??) of the two draggers. That is, if you arm the first dragger and move the hand to a particular point (e.g. beside the body in the original rest position) and record it for the length of the clip (not moving, just staying still), then you disarm that dragger and arm the other dragger, then what you find is the second dragger has less impact. You can move the mouse further away without stretching. Because Character Animator does not compress arms etc (only stretches them), it seems to sort of work.

Here is an example - see how the Target Handles of the default Dragger behavior (called "Dragger") and the second Dragger behaviour (added by clicking the "+" symbol next to the "Behaviours" heading) both list the same Target Handles.

In the recording timeline, you can record both Dragger behaviors independently. (I am suggesting to keep one unmoving, and the other moving.)

But I would classify that as a hack! Probably not what you were after! And the more I play with it, the more unreliable it seems.

Alan

[Rameez_Khan]

Hi Mgiordanovel,

Did you try Alan's suggestion?

Let us know.

Rameez

[alank99101739]

Just wanted to slightly down grade the “hack” rating - oksamauri mentioned it in a recent tips and tricks video as well. It was not suggested as “this is the solution to all your problems”, but more as “it can be useful and works today”.

[Qristian]

Hi Alank, do you have a link for that tip and trick video?
I've tried this but didn't make any difference, so I'd like to know more about it.

[alank99101739]

Sorry, I don’t recall which one. I would watch the couple before the date I posted, otherwise I will try to put a quick video together.

[Qristian]

Thank you for your quick response Alank99.

And don't worry, I've found it:

10:41