Bone Rigging

[Peregrin]

While working in Moho Pro 12, I was struck by a thought: what if Affinity Designer (or even Affinity Photo) had bone rigging like what you'd find in an animation program?  This wouldn't actually be for animation (save that for Affinity Animator), but rather it would work like another mesh warp tool so one could easily change the shape of a design.  Another thing I'd like to bring up is that many animation softwares allow you to have a single point connect to multiple points; this has been mentioned before, and it's been suggested that someone might have a patent, but loads of applications can do this.  Adding this sort of feature to a vector application such as Affinity Designer might make it easier to make vector designs for import into an animation software.

[R C-R]

This request got me thinking. While it does not have the same warping & strength options of a real bone rigging feature, it is possible to simulate the basic bone hierarchy in AD now, using a combination of groups & rotation centers.

 

Attached is a very crude example of how that might work. As is, it is a little tricky to select most parts of the arm on the canvas because I locked the parts that should not rotate within their parent groups, but I hope you get the general idea.

bone rig simulation.afdesign

[Peregrin]

55 minutes ago, R C-R said:

This request got me thinking. While it does not have the same warping & strength options of a real bone rigging feature, it is possible to simulate the basic bone hierarchy in AD now, using a combination of groups & rotation centers.

 

Attached is a very crude example of how that might work. As is, it is a little tricky to select most parts of the arm on the canvas because I locked the parts that should not rotate within their parent groups, but I hope you get the general idea.

bone rig simulation.afdesign

Thanks for the simulation, although I don't know quite what to do with it.  I think it would be really useful to be able to easily adjust the pose of a character in a vector design.

[R C-R]

1 hour ago, Peregrin said:

Thanks for the simulation, although I don't know quite what to do with it.

Try selecting the top level Forearm group. & rotating it with the Move tool. Note that the hand rotates with it, similar to if it was rigged to the forearm 'bone." Now try selecting the Hand group (which you may need to do from the Layers menu). Note that rotating it with the Move tool moves the palm & fingers as a group, rotating them around the (simulated) wrist joint of the forearm. The same thing works for the finger groups.

[Gear maker]

20 minutes ago, R C-R said:

Try selecting the top level Forearm group. & rotating it with the Move tool. Note that the hand rotates with it, similar to if it was rigged to the forearm 'bone." Now try selecting the Hand group (which you may need to do from the Layers menu). Note that rotating it with the Move tool moves the palm & fingers as a group, rotating them around the (simulated) wrist joint of the forearm. The same thing works for the finger groups.

R C-R, FYI you might want to add that the Show Rotation Center must be selected or the appendages rotate from the actual center.

 

Mike

[R C-R]

3 hours ago, Gear maker said:

R C-R, FYI you might want to add that the Show Rotation Center must be selected or the appendages rotate from the actual center.

Not in the file I uploaded. The rotation centers were moved, but even when they are not shown on the canvas, the groups rotate about their new locations.

[MEB]

R C-R,
This was changed in the latest Beta. You have to enable the Show Rotation Centre in the context toolbar to make it work in new versions as @Gear maker pointed out.

[Gear maker]

11 hours ago, MEB said:

R C-R,
This was changed in the latest Beta. You have to enable the Show Rotation Centre in the context toolbar to make it work in new versions as @Gear maker pointed out.

MEB I'm glad for the change.  When the center wasn't shown sometimes I'd find my rotation doing the unexpected.