(INTERACTABLE SHAPES XY CONTROLLER)
Going to try to describe a feature to you that I think could be somewhat easy to implement
and would be a real improvement for rigging and animators. I’ll try to divide this up a little bit so you can get an idea of how this would work at least in my head.
Starting with the basic idea this is largely just a way to interact with smart bone actions differently without the need for a bone on canvas and collapsing multiple functions into a single shape with a tone of flexibility.
This would also allow for the ability to design interfaces and controllers of various kinds for rigs as a side effect of the functionality which is an added benefit.
And the basic idea is that any Shape on canvas regardless of layer would have a tool that would operate as a XY controller. Assignable to any shape or multiple shapes. How would this work and why is it useful?
I imagine that you add a drop down in the existing interface to select a controller Like in this example eyes. The settings for this eyes controller would be in a new tab in the actions panel.
Currently let’s look at an example file.
Here we have a character and three bones on canvas to control the eyes along with the 5 Corresponding actions that have been tied to smart bones.
How can we improve this?
I propose the following.
One Eyes Control Shape covering all these actions using two activators.
One for eye direction. (handled by left click Drag)
Second With a Right Click Drag.
(In case it is not clear I stole the layers icons just as a lazy mockup. This is just to show that you would have a assignable Control Set that could be assigned to a shape and would also have a nested hierarchy of activator specific actions. So disregard the bone and vector and folder icons they are not really needed or relevant.this would be in its own area and I imagine you could even have a way to expand some of these shape control actions and have a value entry or slider bar in the interface similar to morph layers to change values as well)
So in an area inside the actions panel add an area to set up control shapes with a few configurations. So this has the main control shape (represented here by the bone layer although I'm sure this would have a different icon) Called Eyes that can be assigned to any shape or shapes in the styles window.
There are then two separate controls: the first is eye direction controlled with a left click and drag and has a XY controller and the second is the blink and is controlled by a right click and drag and only controls the vertical along the Y and adjusts the blink action.
Interacting with these shapes would be possible from any layer with the Control shape tool enabled. This could be a check box on an existing tool, perhaps the manipulate bones tool.
Once the Fills connected to the eyes are assigned a Control Shape they would highlight in on the canvas No more need to have bones for these shapes. Left click and drag would move the eyes and right click drag to adjust the Blink.
This is the basic Idea Now add a couple basic features in a control shape properties window as follows.
Single action / Double: This is just a way to separate actions into negative and positive value same as current smart bones that are split into actions.
Changing activator:
Left Click,
Right Click
Double click
You could also use a scroll wheel or keystroke like SHIFT, ALT, CTRL etc.
(MIDI would also be an interesting option. )
If you used just Left and right click and double Left and right click this would give you access to 16 controls accessible from a single shape before adding and additional keystrokes.
Merged or Single action:
This would be if you can affect both X and Y values with a drag at the same time or if you want the X and Y value to always be affected one at a time.
Merged for something like Eyes direction
Seperate if you want something like scrubbing the X to go through a set of switch layers and the Y direction to affect some other unrelated value like opacity.
Toggle action:
So any control shape, if only 2 Frames long could be set to toggle between two states. This means a basic function could be on say left click but double clicking could Hide or Show additional layers or controls just by animating their visibility.
This would mean you could have basic controls on a shape or a menu on screen built to toggle additional controls quickly. Like a head having a head turn action all over its parts a right click could be set to show the controls for parts of the face. Ect.
Sensitivity: some sort of sensitivity to adjust how quickly dragging on a shape moves through the associated action.
Overlay Color: This would change the overlay color on canvas when enabled. This would be best if it worked like bone scopes showing parts that are intractable when the mouse is near them by overlaying a color or changing the mouse icon in some way when the correct tool is being used. I imagine all overlays and bones would be invisible during clicking and dragging on a controller so they don’t get in the way of posing and visuals.
Just some thoughts.
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