Reference Rigs

Animating people and animals for games is not easy. Imagery has support for reference images converted to vector rigs to help you pose and animate your characters.

To help you get started, there are some reference rigs created and accessed through the reference button found at the end of the Sprite Frames toolbar.

The cog icon allows you to pick your reference and the the running figure to show and hide it on your canvas.

The animals were derived from the skeleton animations in the Ultimate Animated Animal Pack by Quaternius, https://quaternius.com/packs/ultimateanimatedanimals.html.

Clicking the cog icon button brings up the list as seen above. There are a couple of human references for walking and running and various animal references. We can create our own too, but we'll come to that later.

Select the Fox Walk and click OK.

You will see the reference of the fox in the first frame of your sprite canvas. Remember you can hide it with the figure icon next to the cog icon. It won't be exported on your artwork, it is just here as a reference to help with animation.

Lets create some frames. My canvas is the default 16x16 size and I'll work with that to keep it simple. On the frames panel, click the + button to add another 7 frames.

Note: you don't see them in this frame panel, but you will see it on the main canvas.

Let's go through our frames to see the reference in action. We currently have frame 7 selected, so press the 2 key to go through the previous frames until you get to frame 0. Notice how the fox walk animation is played out on the main canvas as you move through the frames.

Press the 3 key to move forward through the frames. With a total of 8 frames the animation is pretty smooth. The reference will fit the number of frames you have, so with 4 frames the animation will be coarser and 16 frames it will be smoother.

I'm also going to switch on the onion skin feature, so I can see what have have drawn on the surrounding frames (previous and next frames are set by default).

The onion skin button is the circular icon.

My rudamentary fox has been drawn. Press the 5 key to play the animation.

Here's my awesome lo-res walking fox!

Click the running figure icon to see it without the reference rig on top.

That was pretty easy to get started right?

Note: Adding frames after drawing your animation will stretch the reference to fit them, causing the animation to fall out of sync with the rig. Plan your total frame count in advance to avoid this problem.

I could now spend some time refining my animation, but for purposes of this quick guide let's move on to what else we can do with reference rigs.

Examining a reference rig

Click on the cog icon again to get to the reference rig chooser.

This time click the Edit a Copy button.

This will add a new bank to your project for the fox reference rig.

A reference rig is a series of bones that define parts of the fox. Click the Rig tab on the bottom right to see the hierarchy of objects.

You can edit a rig using the Move tool in the toolbar, the transformation pop up panel and the Rig panel.

On the Rig panel click on the Head. This object will be highlighted with two handles.

The square handle can be used to resize the object.
The round handle can be used to rotate the object.
The object can be repositioned by dragging it.

The keyboard can also be used to modify a rig object.

Cursor keys to move.
Hold Ctrl key and Cursor keys to resize.
Hold Alt key and Cursor keys to rotate.

Expand the transformation toolbar and the selected rig object can also be scaled and rotated with the transformation controls.

Hold the Shift key while clicking a transformation control for larger steps.

Another way to edit a rig object is through the Rig panel.

Right click the Head on the Rig panel and select Part... or alternatively double click Head in the list.

From here you can change:

Its name
Pick a shape from Rectangle, Oval or Line
Set the size
Set the colour
Set its position
Set the angle
Set the scale

Understanding the Rig Hierarchy

The rig works as a hierarchy, starting with a single rig object. In the case of the fox, this object has been named Body.

Any number of other objects can then be attached to this object. Their position and rotation are relative to the parent Body, so if the body is moved or rotated, the objects beneath will follow.

This provides the mechanism for how rigs work. You would create your parent, usually as the body of the subject, and add lines, rectangles and ovals from it for elements such as the head, arms and legs.

These objects can also have objects attached to them, for example, the fox has an Upper Foreleg (Left) which has a Lower Foreleg (Left) attach to it.

Each object on the rig can be moved, scaled and rotated. As said the child objects attached to it will follow along with it.

Try selecting the Upper Foreleg (Left) and rotating it. You will see the Lower Foreleg (Left) rotates with it.

Animating the Rig

The animation for teh fox rig happens to span 8 frames. Pressing 2 and 3 on the keyboard will take you though the frames. As this rig has been animated already, you will see all the rig objects move, rotate and scale as you move through frames.

To make a change to the animation, go to the frame you wish to change, select the rig object using the Move tool, or from the Rig panel, and then adjust them using transformation options covered above. For example, grab the circular handle to rotate the object.

Adding new rig objects

Adding new rig objects can be done when editing frame 0, using the + button in the Rig panel, or using the line, rectangle and oval drawing tool buttons.

The new rig object is always created from the currently selected object. So let's add a second tail to our fox so it can fly and help out a hedgehog.

Select the Body of the fox, this is going to be the parent for our new tail (remember can select with the move tool or from the rig panel).

There are two ways to add:

Add shape from the + button on the Rig panel

Remember need to be editing frame 0 to add new rig objects and to have the parent object selected already.

Option 1 is to use the + button on the Rig panel. This will add the object, but you will need to move and rotate it to where you want it to be,

Option 2 is to use the line, rectangle or oval tool to draw directly on the canvas.

Which ever method, you should now have a second tail added on frame 0, and on all frames in the animation.

2. Select the line, rectangle or oval tool and draw directly on the canvas

Lets give the new rig object a name of Tail 2, and make the line thicker.

To do this right click on the object in the Rig paneland click Part... or double click the rig object in the list.

And now go through each frame in the rig animation and reposition the object as you wish.

We now have a fox with two tails.

You can use this rig in your current project, if you return to your sprite bank and click the cog icon to bring up all rigs.

Alternatively, you can rename your bank and then use Bank -> Save Rig... to save it to your library and make it available for all future projects.

Creating your own Reference Rigs

In this topic we've looked at existing reference rigs and we've customised them. It is also possible to create your own reference rigs for any animation purpose. The rigs in Imagery's library are looping rigs, walk, run and gallop cycles that repeat. You can also create rigs that don't loop if you wish.

To create a new Reference Rig, either go to the Bank panel and click the +, choosing New Reference Rig Bank... or go to the Bank menu for New Reference Rig Bank...

You will need a reference image, this is a picture containing the animation frames you will trace to make your reference rig. For example, I found this image on the Internet that is suitable:

On creating the new Reference RIg Bank you will be asked to select your reference image and then will see this image in Frame 0 of the reference bank.

The Rig panel will show no objects, as this is a new rig. We will need to create the parent first.

We can use the + button on the Rig panel, but I will use the line, rectangle and oval tools to draw my rig in the following steps. The process is the same as we did previously when customising an existing rig.

I'll also rename the rig parts I create in the following steps:

Add your body to the canvas, I've used a rectangle.

Use the move tool to rotate and position exactly as you need it.

With the Body selectect, add an Oval for the head.

Again, use the move tool to position it where needed. Note in the Rig panel, the head is a child to the body.

Select the Body again with the move tool - this is important!

Use the line tool to add the upper arm. It will be connected to the Body. The upper arm is now selected, so draw the lower arm. It will be connected to the upper arm.

Select the Body once again, and draw the other arm segments.

Repeat for the leg, remembering to select the Body to draw the first part of the leg.

If you've followed along correctly, and connected the tops of arm and leg to the body, and the bottoms of arms and legs to their corresponding top, you should see something like this in your Rig panel (I have renamed my rig objects).

If it doesn't flow like this you can drag and drop any object on this list to re-order them. Or you can delete rig objects and try again.

Animating the new rig

So far we've created our rig in the first pose on the reference image. We next need to create a frame for each image we are going to pose the rig against to create the animation.

There are three things to understand in this process.

You will create a new frame
You will reposition the rig over the next reference image
You will pose the rig to match the next frame in the animation

Create a new frame by clicking the + button on the frames panel.
We now have frame 0 and 1.
We'll edit frame 1.

2. Using the Move tool, in frame 1 we'll drag the Body rig object over to the next reference image.

3. Using the Move tool, the arms and legs have been rotated into position, and can also move or stretch if needed.

Frame 0 and frame 1 have now been animated. Repeat this process for the remaining frame...

Create a new frame
Move the Body over the next reference image
Pose the rig to match the image

You can press 5 (or click the play button) to play the reference animation, which will be relative to the body so you can test if your animated rig looks correct.

When complete you can use your rig in the current project, or you can use Bank -> Save Rig... to save it to your library to use in any future project.

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