Motion Puppet is another exciting new addition that brings us several animation tools and allows us to practice (preview) our work before we record it. This dialog panel contains many controls, including slides to change parts of the motions included on the panel.
The following image shows the Motion Puppet dialog window:
Type of Motion |
Idle, Move, Mood, and Talk are the four types of motion categories available at the time of this writing. |
Motions |
There are various motions, such as, 01_Bored, 01_Dance, or 01_Natural. |
Move by Mouse |
This overrides the automatic movement and allows us limited control via the mouse within the confines of the chosen motion. |
Mask |
Click on a body part to prevent it from receiving any animation data. To select a body part or parts, masks those parts from the generated animation. This is done to save either the already existing animation for those parts, or for later animation of those parts. |
Save or Open Body Animation Profile |
We can save our custom created profiles here and load them for use later. |
Face Puppet Button |
Opens the Face Puppet feature, as introduced in version 4. This works as described in Chapter 4, Animating the Characters. |
Preview vs Record |
A great feature that allows us to practice the movement before we record it. Even when using a stock motion, it lets us see how that motion looks with the scene before we record it. |
Preset |
An extensive group of slider controls that allows us to modify certain elements of the character's motion. We can narrow or widen the stance, lower, or raise the elbows and shoulders, or alter the character's lean forward or backward along with many other parameters. A wide range of customization is available and experimentation is encouraged to get a grasp of the range of these controls. |