I can't get my arms and legs to attach to my character

Report · May 22, 2020

It seems the staple would be helpful but this is my first puppet and I cant get the arms and hands or legs to attach to the puppet. He's kinda different because his torso and his head are kinda one in the same. He's like an egg dude. I have no idea how to attach the project since it is in multiple directories and adobe doesn't let you zip the files. Everything says when you drag the anchor for the arm onto the head/torso that they are supposed to turn green but nothing is turning green.

Report · May 22, 2020

You have too many independent layers (layers with crowns on). Independence is a really important concept to get right. That is, you have to get the right things independent, but not go too far.

There are actually two trees in the rigging hierarchy. There is the tree of layers (all the nesting of arms inside bodies etc). Then there is a tree of "meshes". Every time you use the independent crown, a new mesh is started. All the children under it are included in that mesh until a new crown is encountered (and a new mesh is created).

What is really important here is a child mesh needs something to attach to in the parent mesh. In your case, *all* the children of "Sanders" (the root layer group) are independent. This means there is no artwork in the root mesh. Its empty. So there is no artwork for children to attach to.

The easiest solution is to turn off the crown for the Head layer. That means the main head artwork will become a part of the "Sanders" mesh. This will give the arms and legs etc something to attach to. Ideally the artwork should overlap a bit (the arms and legs should overlap the body a bit) to give an easy attachment point.

Report · May 22, 2020

I forgot to add you will probably need to turn off a lot more of the indpendent flags. You should only put this on (start a layer name with a "+" sign) when it is on purpose you want an independent layer. Otherwise leave it off.

For example, eyes are frequently independent because independence means movements will not affect the parent. You want the pupils to move around freely for example, so they should be independent. Arms can either be dependent and joined to the body, or independent so they hinge where they meet the body. I often try both to see which looks better.

Oh, leave independence on the root Sanders layer too ("+Sanders"). That works best.

On the face I normally make the eyes, mouth, eye brows independent. Then the pupil inside the eye. Hair might be independent too so it can dangle nicely. Then maybe arms and legs - but not always.