Book Image

Adobe Animate 2022 for Creative Professionals - Second Edition

By : Joseph Labrecque
Book Image

Adobe Animate 2022 for Creative Professionals - Second Edition

By: Joseph Labrecque

Overview of this book

Adobe Animate is platform-agnostic asset creation, motion design, animation, and interactivity software. Complete with explanations of essential concepts and step-by-step walkthroughs of practical examples, this book will guide you in using Adobe Animate to create immersive experiences by breaking through creative limitations across every medium. We begin by getting up to speed with all that you need to know about Adobe Animate. You'll learn how to get started with Animate as a creative platform and explore the features introduced in its most recent versions. The book will show you how to consume and produce media assets for multiple platforms through both the publish and export workflows. Following this, you’ll explore advanced rigging techniques and discover how to create more dynamic animation with advanced depth and movement techniques. You’ll also find out how to build projects such as games, virtual reality experiences, and apps for various platforms as the book demonstrates different ways to use Animate. Finally, it covers the different methods used to extend the software for various needs. By the end of this Adobe Animate book, you'll be able to produce a variety of media assets, motion graphic design materials, animated artifacts, and interactive content pieces for platforms such as HTML5 Canvas, WebGL, and mobile devices.
Table of Contents (19 chapters)
1
Section 1 – Getting up to Speed
6
Section 2 – Animating with Diverse Techniques
13
Section 3 – Exploring Additional Platforms

Building an Armature using Inverse Kinematics

Previously, we learned how to animate a character across layers with Layer Parenting mechanisms using Advanced Layers mode. While they are simple enough to use, there are some limitations to consider while constructing your rig using that method, and dealing with so many layers can be a chore. Another rigging mechanism exists in Animate that is capable of similar results, but with a completely different workflow and set of tools. Animate is capable of producing animation through an Inverse Kinematics workflow by using the Bone tool and special armature layers. This will be the focus of the current chapter.

First, we'll address how these two approaches differ from one other and then build a rig using inverse kinematics.

Understanding Inverse Kinematics vs. Forward Kinematics

Just like in the previous chapter, we'll be using the wooden doll artwork to construct our alternate rig. As with all the files referenced in this...