Use 1 control button to active multiple triggers?

[DarrenFMc]

Hi,

I have a set it up so that when I press the Z key bot hthe left and right hands change. This works fine as expected.

I want to add this to the Control Tab but when I do, the new "Button" witht he Z assigned to it only activates 1 hand, then one I set to go to the Control Tab.

Is there a way to have one Control button that activated both hands that are triggered by the Z key for example?

[ElectroPuppet]

Hi Macnimation,

Hmm. That should work. I have puppets that use a single trigger to activate multiple layer swaps and actions.

I've had the problem you are describing when I assign the same trigger key to multiple triggers though.

My guess is, you have that problem. So you need to make a swap set called hands. Set a default trigger that has both hands in it. Then set a new trigger with your new hands and assign the trigger 'Z' to that.

Hope that helps!

[alank99101739 · Accepted solution]

Hmm from me too! Just expanding on some points in case not clear. A trigger can be connected to multiple layers, or you can have multiple triggers triggered by the same key ('z' in your case). I could well believe when you have one trigger with multiple layers in it, you will get one control button. When you have multiple triggers that all independently listen for the 'z' key then there will probably be multiple buttons in the control panel.

To add a second layer to an existing trigger, just drag the layer (in the rigging panel) from the hierarchy to the trigger. A trigger can have many layers at once (some mistakenly think a trigger can only control one layer at a time). To remove, there is a little 'x' next to the layer name to remove it from a trigger.

The funky part is when you get into swap sets. Normally to keep things easy to understand I put all the alternatives for a swap set under the one group. But if it is left and right hand you cannot do this - they need to be under the left and right arms.

I am not at a computer just now, but what I would try is to create triggers for the left hand with whatever swapset for different hand positions you want. Make sure that works. Next, on the right hand, drag the layers over to the left hand triggers you already created. Do not create a new swap set. Hopefully the left hand swap set will manage both hands and the same time.

i hope I understood what you are trying to do correctly...

[DarrenFMc]

Hi, thanks for the reply. Still a bit confused 🙂 I cannot figure out the Swap set thing at all, very confusing when I try to figure it out.

Anyway I tried the other option and in the triggers panel under the Rig mode I had 2 hands, each witha Z trigger. I dragged one of the triggers onto the other and it then formed one trigger, and as you said, it showed 2 instances when I click on the trigger in the trigger panel. The Control Button when pressed does now indeed active both hands, so it works as epxected. Thanks. A bit of a clanky process and not very intuitive though.

The control button only shows the one hand, ideally it be good if there was a control button that showed the icon of both hands and also be able to add a label to the Control Button.

It works now so thanks again.

[alank99101739]

For changing the icon, I do recall one of the Oksamurai videoes talking about how to change the images to what you preferred - but don't remember how it worked. So you can do it, but sorry don't remember how.

Regarding triggers and swap sets, here is my go at an explanation.

Triggers are, err, triggered by an event. Typically a key on the keyboard, or a button on that control panel. You can also hook up Midi keyboards etc. When the trigger is triggered, it makes the layer(s) associated with the trigger visible.

With the left and right hand, you can have two independent triggers and have both triggers fired off by the same keyboard key. So pressing 'z' or whatever causes two triggers to fire. That was what you had before. Because there were two triggers, you had two buttons. Doing the dragging thing you created one trigger the made multiple layers visible at the same time.

I suspect that part you probably understand - one trigger, two layers now become visible.

Swap sets are the next concept. They are pretty simple actually. The idea is you have a set of triggers where exactly one of the set is triggered (visible) at a time. The other triggers are off (the layers are hidden). You also have a default triggered turned on. So the idea is when you press 'z' it will turn off the default trigger in the set and turn on the 'z' trigger.

This is actually the only way to make a trigger hide something (normally triggers can only make hidden layers visible). You have to have a swap set where the default is the visible one, and the other triggers in the set Will hide the default. That is the only way I know to hide a layer from a trigger.

Not sure that helped at all, but glad you got it working! (Well, I think that is what you said! Lol!)